I was one of seven poets commissioned to write poems inspired by Rochdale's Connect2 network as part of the Connect2 project. You'll be able to read more about the project on the Connect2Rochdale blog soon. So for my post tonight here are my five commissioned poems. They relate to the area around Milnrow, Kingsway Business Park through to Broad lane with a reference to Rochdale town centre in the last poem.
Bulrushes
Water lily pads fringe
dark deep water
The heron stands
By the tall bulrushes
Statue still
Strikes
A knife blade splash
Languid ripples radiate
Slow wing-beats loft
high
And the motorway rumbles
The long grass rustles
And the songbirds break
through
Between
High hedges hide the
secret places
Between nature and men’s
meddling
Quiet places beside
Ivy clad cottages
Leading to
Victorian terraces and
Batch-built estates
And a present-day
traveller
Traces history’s
footsteps
Subway
Weavers’ cottages and
Ellenroad’s tall smoking
stack
Overlook the hidden
entrance
As walkers, cyclists and
horses
Pass under fast traffic
Frequent frustrated
queues
Heading North, South,
East and West
The motorway rumbles
The long grass rustles
And the songbirds break
through
The Larks
Skylarks soar their
vertical columns
Echoing chimneys long
gone
Yellow machines move
earth
Tall cranes lower
preformed concrete
And industry is reborn
In a northern town
Seat of a co-operative
revolution
And the motorway rumbles
The long grass rustles
And the songbirds always
break through
Seven Guardians
White turbines churning,
lazy
On dark Peninne hills
While seven sisters
guard the valley
Where weavers in 1844
Pioneered equity
Now East and West bound
Traffic doesn’t see
The motorway rumbles
The long grass still
rustles
And the songbirds break
through
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