Tag Archives: wandle poem

Up in the Air – Poems on video: Weather Map

The first of an occasional series of videos in which I read poems from my book, Up in the Air.

I wrote Weather Map when I was living in a small flintstone folly owned by the National Trust on the edge of a housing estate in London. At the end of the garden was – beyond a tricky pile of thorny scrub – a beautiful and little-known tributary of the Thames, the River Wandle. I had just started going out with the lovely woman who was to become my wife.

So, here is me reading Weather Map. If you like it, leave a comment.

You can purchase a copy of Up in the Air here:

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The Wandle Geese

The Wandle Geese

Bright brown, white, and black
straining, swift
against the uppermost limits
of the river-channel’s air
honking
and half-honking

come the throat-stretched geese,
nature regenerate,
unmade,
singing the quality
that flies ahead of itself

roll-calling the bounty
of the nettle-thick banks

stamping their mark
on the ducks and the coots

championing the ever-ready

and demanding renewed assault
on the beauty and mystery
grown over within.

Wandle Geese features in my new poetry book, Up in the Air:

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