Valerie Flatman
Boundaries
Let’s not forget the County names,
their hills and rivers, city spires;
each holds, distinguished and entire
its folklore, dialect and terrain.
Westmorland mists and craggy heights,
the spreading green of Yorkshire moors,
damp Norfolk Broads and Suffolk shores,
where sea and sky reflect clear lights.
Sussex Downs, chalk cliffs and shingle coast,
trees clumped on Surrey hills in haze
and Kent’s pink blossoms, hops, byways
that curve unthinking then are lost.
Small signs mark hedged West Country lanes,
not postcodes, map references or squares:
Dorset meets Somerset down there
near Wiltshire’s fringes to the Plain.
We cannot let this disappear,
sing England’s praises, keep those signs,
though leaves may hide their words and lines,
that’s the way we do things here.
Page(s) 29
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