Notes from the Underground (IFT)

[Sorella]

Oh, Clapham Common... so fascinating!
And a good companion philosophically to that other Australian Dunc's Anzac Day poem this year.

[Sorella]

You are surely in Shakespeare and Company in Paris?!

[Emily Bronte]

Karin I am

Shakespeare and Company is possibly my favourite bookshop in the whole world.

Glad you think Clapham Common is a good Anzac Day Companion poem ☺️

[Emily Bronte]

Welsh Interlude

All the way from Oxford to Cardiff
the man opposite me complains
"a dog wouldn't travel this way!"
I stay silent but amused, hoping
you won't be waiting too long
because of the delay.
You seem well and happy, planning
everything you want to show me.
The pièce de résistance--Tintern Abbey.
I draw a long breath, trying to curl my mind
around so much beauty as the light
falls onto arches of stone and heightens
the green velvet of the grass.
Occasionally you are tired so we don't
do too much in one day. You tell me
about being in the library and overhearing
the staff abusing you in Welsh--
they'd taken you for a tourist.
When you reply in the same language
you don't have to rearrange their faces;
they do it for you, falling over themselves
to be more polite. We drink tea
with a friend in a seaside shack
after you tell me you are going to take me
to the ugliest beach in the world, and it is!
We laugh about it together. It's only later
I realise that it was an ending.
You are laid to rest in this land
that nurtured your mind and if I ever
come here again I feel certain
you will be there, around the next bend
in the road, making the sea grasses dance.
This time, I'll wait for you.

[Emily Bronte]

Oh and Dunc, thank you for stopping by and your lovely comments. It's always interesting to me to see which ones stand out to people, and for what reasons.

You are correct re Latchford Barracks ☺️

And yes I often think about how desperate he must have been to try that.

[5th column]

A very enjoyable prose poem Emily. Touching

[Sorella]

Love Tintern Abbey and this:

You tell me
about being in the library and overhearing
the staff abusing you in Welsh--
they'd taken you for a tourist.
When you reply in the same language
you don't have to rearrange their faces;
they do it for you, falling over themselves
to be more polite

[kristalynn]

Welsh Interlude, very beautiful.

[Emily Bronte]

Neil, Karin, Andrea, thank you so much.

More desperate catch up efforts today but I'm not giving up this close to the finish line!

[Emily Bronte]

Regent’s Park

(Another mostly found poem)

What the tube announcement currently says-
Alight here for local buses to London Zoo.

What it should say-
Alight here to faff away
half your morning
trying to find the right bus stop
before giving up and settling
for a really long walk
through the park.

Which is beautiful anyway. Especially
with the sun slanting through the leaves.

[Emily Bronte]

Euston Square

It’s the nearest tube station to University
College London but I spend more time
in the British Library to escape the cold.
On arrival I can only pass the ferryman
for this river Styx with the correct token;
endless documents that prove I am
who I am. I nurse my reading
room card like a newborn baby
and settle down happily for hours.
When I get sick of Pret-a-Manger
sandwiches and soup I wander
the back streets in Bloomsbury
where it’s possible to get a hot
meal for less than ten pounds.
Sometimes I allow myself
to imagine winning the lottery,
ensconced in a studio
apartment here, reading
and writing all day. Shouts
on the street and the shriek
of sirens bring me back to reality.
Long after I’ve left
I still haven’t unsubscribed
from the British Library
emails. It’s a little doorway
to my dreams.

[Sorella]

Me too, the British Library, so beautiful. As is St Pancras.
So glad you are doing the full 30 of these. A book, at least a chapbook!

the back streets in Bloomsbury
where it’s possible to get a hot
meal for less than ten pounds.
<3

[Emily Bronte]

Karin yeah what is it with these British buildings--so ugly on the outside but amazing inside. lol.

[GreaterMandalaofUselessness]

Hi Emily,

I've enjoyed catching up with this thread, and the generally friendly and conversational tone of these poems make them a pleasure to read.

I was tickled by the seeing being phoneless equated with entering the underworld in Russel Square and enjoyed the way you extended the metaphor in what followed.

Lambeth North returns us to the underworld and paints the underground as a lesser hell realm: the disembodied voices, the lack of human contact amid the oppressive, claustrophobic spaces, crowds of people and alternative topology.

Loved the close of Westminster: "Heroism can be a whisper barely audible / above the strident trumpeting of those / who want more credit than they deserve."

Aldgate was informative and interesting and had me off googling -- and for me connected strongly with the underground/underworld sub-theme in your thread. Another side to the underground system.

I liked Welsh Interlude very much, a touching reminiscence and elegy.

Only two stops left to the end of the line.

-Matt

[Mittens]

Welsh Interlude is really well done, perfectly bittersweet. And now I want to visit the British Library! So beautiful.