Category: Poetry

Brean where dreams were first ingrained.
In sea sodden sand, mud at low tide and a hill of sorts
chasing down dragons amongst Brythonic dunes.

At  Men Ebeli, once the stone of colts
we cleared Cornubian outcrops like foals
footprints fading faster than the rolling tongue
could murmur: Menabilly.
But the pools stayed, almost still, broad kelp
shielding shrimp and jelly blob abominations.
And up in the grass at Grybyn Head 
lolling topsy-turvy as gulls, arms akimbo
till a wasp sting felled me to earth. 

Ancient Britons found a stronghold by the alder grove
taken in turns by Celt and Jute - Romans called it
Cantiacorum, Kent's cathedral city in England's Eden.
Knee-capped in snow or petal blossom
hedge stretched with nests and pine tree pinnacles
to almost grasp the feathered flypasts.
Mid-August orchards ripened with plums, 
goblet-shaped for gobblers, and early apples
pitted by worm, tooth marked too, 
trialling sweetness.

One skip and hop from this Pilgrim orb, salty bays
splayed out north and east. From shingled Hyrne
to Sondwic with ample sand to grit crab teas
on the softest buttered bread. 

Marble-mouthed and staccato sharp the Anglo-Saxon tongue
and stepping after Nor'folk we wended there
to Esnuterle, to mudflat solitude and colonies of seal.
Honeymooned at Hitchham where wild duck hunters
greased their guns and grapeshot from the ripening gorse
was fired in hot Septembers.

Heart leapt to the blast of horn in Suttun Hoh.
settling my soul on the Deben's southern bank
at Wudubrycg, like a pre-loved houseboat.
Sinking with dignified decay and contentment
in the creek; there long-legged waders
pipe to the wind, that's always heading west.

Somerset:
Brean – modern Welsh for a hill

Cornwall:
Men Ebeli = Menabilly. Cornish/Celtic for stone of colts

Grybyn Head = Gribbin Head – derived from Cornish/Celtic for little ridge

Kent:
Cantiacorum = Canterbury

Hyrne= Herne bay – old English for’ a corner’

Sondwic=Sandwich – Anglo-Saxon for ‘market town on sandy soil’

Norfolk:
Esnuterle – renamed Blakeney when John de Blakeney was gifted the manor there in 13th century

Hitcham=Heacham – from the river Hitch +ham/home

Suffolk:
Suttun Hoh = Sutton Hoo -from Old English: “Sut” + “tun” means “settlement,” and “hoh” translates to “shaped like a heel spur.”

Wudubrycg – old English for Woodbridge ?Woden (Odin) and Burgh, Bury, or Brigg (town).