Leaf 311 – Art Inspired
This poem was inspired by one of
Alexandra Buckle’s prints, ‘Woodland Edge’ (2020), which very closely matches a
view found on a scenic walk in the locale around my hometown on the edge of
London. It’s a route which in recent years I have walked several times with my
mother. On that walk – through woodland dells, down main streets and back lanes, up footbridges over railway lines, along footpaths, through parks and beside the local river which gives its name
to our town – each of us shared our memories of growing up there, roaming the
woods and fields thereabouts. I have always been interested in the local history
of the place where I grew up. When I was a child at school, our teachers took
us on a walk through the town and taught us all about the various architectural styles of buildings from different eras, from the modern back to
the Elizabethan and even the medieval. Having originally been a rural village
which was subsequently subsumed into London’s “Metroland” it has retained a
countryside feel, and even has one working farm still. Now that I am grown up,
I’ve begun to explore the town with my own family history more in
mind – quizzing my mother about the places which connect us and sharing
memories that link us together: me, her, my grandparents, and my great
grandparents. Continuing a kind of anecdotal relay, wherein the baton of our lived
past is passed down; a baton forged through time and place, a baton which has brazed
those elements together to make us who we are – because family is home, and
home is family. This is something which I hope the following poem manages to
capture and encapsulate with far fewer words, but (hopefully) with a much deeper
sense of feeling.
On a walk through
the landscape of
our childhoods –
my mother and me.
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