This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You

Memorial Stone

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Tathwell, Cadwell, Burwell, Rothwell, Hemswell, Harpswell, Hemswell Cliff, Cromwell, Upwell, Cranwell, Outwell, Holwell, Ashwell, Maidenwell.

Haltham, Metheringham, Nettleham, Reepham, Welham, Askham, Markham Moor, North Hykeham, Low Marnham, Helpringham, South Witham, High Marnham, New Boultham, Sempringham, Low Burnham, Alvingham, South Willingham, Cherry Willingham, North Willingham, Hagworthingham, Walkeringham, Hykeham Moor, Threekingham, Stokeham, Laneham, Grantham, Wymondham, Haugham, Castle Bytham, Burringham, Messingham, Waddingham, Grayingham, Pilham, Beckingham, Little Bytham, Corringham, Fillingham, Ingham, Cammeringham, Cottam, Dunham, Boultham, Hykeham, Bassingham, Leasingham, Sandringham, Hougham, Cotham, Snettisham, Holdingham, Shouldham Thorpe.

Sandy Bank, Lade Bank, Ten Mile Bank, Wrangle Bank.

Little Steeping, Great Steeping.

Willoughton, Blyton, Doddington, Burton, Toft next Newton, Newton by Toft, Misterton, Morton, Rampton, Laughton, Laughterton, Welton, Gosberton Clough, Scampton, Scotton, Screveton, Shelton, Sapperton, Syston, Aslockton, Marston, Ruskington, Dorrington, Heckington, Quarrington, Ossington, Orston, Carlton Scroop, North Carlton, South Carlton, South Clifton, East Drayton, Gate Burton, High Toynton, Low Langton, Wold Newton, North Reston, South Reston, Carlton on Trent, Holton cum Beckering, Sturton le Steeple, Kirton in Lindsey, Thornton le Moor, Carlton-le-Moorland, Keddington Corner, North Leverton with Habblesthorpe, Newton on Trent, Bishop Norton, Norton Disney, Market Stainton, Toynton Fen Side, Burton Coggles, Burton Pedwardine, Burton Lazars, Normanton, Haddington, Honington, Allington, Branston, Barkston, Wyberton West, South Leverton, Dry Doddington, Stewton Keddington, East Torrington, Market Overton, North Elkington, South Elkington, Kirton Holme, West Torrington, South Cockerington, North Cockerington, Croxton Kerrial, East Heckington, Halton Fenside, Langton by Wragby, Sutton on Trent, Sproxton, Skillington, Creeton, Baston, Stretton, Thistleton, Moulton, Etton, Bainton, Ashton, Helpston, Upton, Fenton, Darlton, Gelston, Thoroton, Alverton, Stroxton, Muston, Foston, Scredington, Denton, Knipton, Harston, Donington, Drayton, Freiston, Leverton, Benington, Horsington, Holton le Moor, Moortown, Muckton, Gayton, Sutterton, Hainton, Harrington, Donington on Bain, Harlaxton, Hungerton, Hallington, Luddington, Spridlington, Lissington, Welton le Wold, Leverington, Frampton, Kirton, Asperton, Gosberton, Pointon, Langton, Thornton, Elton, Belton, Newton, Nocton, Halton Holegate, Wyberton East, Kirmington, Edlington, Wispington, Fiskerton, Long Bennington, Low Toynton, Low Stanton, Little Carlton, Little Welton, Little Ponton, Wootton, Broughton, Dunston, Langton, Sutton, Swaton, Eaton, Croxton, Coston, Kirton End, Great Ponton, Lenton, Panton, Heighington, Great Carlton, Nettleton, Normanton on Trent.

Scrafield, Stainfield, Bitchfield, Kelfield, Gorefield.

Wildsworth, Hawksworth, Pickworth, Colsterworth, Stainton by Langworth, Potterhanworth, Cold Hanworth, Faldingworth, Tamworth Green, West Barkwith, East Barkwith, Benniworth, Butterwick, Susworth, West Stockwith, Ailsworth, East Stockwith, Epworth, Langworth, Epworth Turbary.

Ticks Moor, West Moor.

Gayton le Marsh, Chapel Six Marshes, Marshchapel, Holbeach Marsh.

Brentingby, Wyfordby, Bescaby, Stonesby, Saxby, Stainby, Gunby, Dunsby, Hacconby, Ingoldsby, Keisby, Dalderby, Winceby, Asgarby, Hundleby, Scrivelsby, Spilsby, New Spilsby, Great Dalby, South Ormsby, Wood Enderby, Ab Kettleby, Old Somerby, Bag Enderby, Coningsby, Miningsby, Aslackby, Hanby, Humby, Thimbleby, Gautby, Wickenby, Fulnetby, Bleasby, Wragby, Sotby, Ranby, Goulceby, Asterby, Raithby, Maltby, Scamblesby, Swaby, Grimoldby, Manby, Aunby, Careby, Carlby, Thrulby, Saltby, Revesby, Raithby, Dalby, Graby, Dowsby, Tumby, Thoresby, Somersby, Goadby Marwood, Kirkby Green, Boothby Pagnell, Kirkby on Bain, Ashby Puerorum, Irby in the Marsh, Hemingby, Tealby, Kirkby, Kingerby, Ketsby, Calceby, Rigsby, Raithby, Sutterby, Utterby, Ashby de la Lounde, North Ormsby, North Thoresby, Grimsby, Tumby Woodside, Mavis Enderby, New Spilsby, West Ashby, Little Dalby, Little Grimsby, Ashby cum Fenby, Normanby le Wold, Fulletby, Salmonby, Worlaby, Fotherby, Legsby, Walesby, Osgodby, Usselby, Claxby, Croxby, Grainsby, Hagnaby, Aylesby, Candlesby, Barnoldby le Beck, Irby upon Humber, Ulceby Skitter, Dragonby, Keadby, Ulceby Cross, Ulceby, Worlaby, Bonby, Wrawby, Appleby, Risby, Brumby, Scawby, Bigby, Somerby, Searby, Owmby, Grasby, Clixby, Usselby, Snitterby, Atterby, Aisby, Saundby, Kexby, Normanby, Saxby, Barnetby le Wold, Hareby, Wilksby, Brattleby, Bransby, Skegby, Harby, Saxilby, Whisby, Thurlby, Firsby, Boothby Graffoe, Navenby, Digby, Ewerby, Asgarby, North Rauceby, South Rauceby, East Kirkby, East Firsby, Aisby, Aunsby, West Firsby, Gonerby Hill Foot, Grebby, Aswardby, Driby, Osbournby, Caenby, Granby, Barrowby, Welby, Oasby, Kelby, Braceby, Haceby, Dembleby, Aswarby, Scott Willoughby, Silk Willoughby, Saltfleetby, Great Gonerby, North Owersby, South Owersby, Spanby, Coleby, Ashby, Aby.

Westry, Whittlesey, March.

Dogsthorpe, Longthorpe, Westhorpe, Wilsthorpe, Belmesthorpe, Northorpe, Obthorpe, Manthorpe, Leesthorpe, Grimsthorpe, Elsthorpe, Scottlethorpe, Hawthorpe, Hanthorpe, Garthorpe, Milthorpe, Castlethorpe, Kettlethorpe, Skellingthorpe, Grassthorpe, Besthorpe, Winthorpe, Kirkby la Thorpe, Woolsthorpe by Colsterworth, Woolsthorpe, Derrythorpe, Birthorpe, Far Thorpe, Mid Thorpe, Kingthorpe, Swinthorpe, Friesthorpe, Woodthorpe, Claythorpe, Authorpe, Althorpe, Yaddlethorpe, Yawthorpe, Thorpe in the Fallows, Caythorpe, Sibthorpe, Biscathorpe, Buslingthorpe, Scunthorpe, Grainthorpe, Londonthorpe, Scotterthorpe, Northorpe, Gunthorpe, Springthorpe, Culverthorpe, Mablethorpe, Manthorpe, Aisthorpe, Hogsthorpe, Little Cawthorpe, Trusthorpe, Thorpe Satchville, Thorpe Arnold, Thorpe.

Loosegate, Fleet Hargate, Gate Burton, Broadgate, Horsegate, Halesgate, Wrangle Lowgate, Deeping Gate, Westgate, Chapelgate, Guanockgate, Halton Holegate, Gedney Broadgate.

Dogdyke, Skeldyke, Seadyke, Fosdyke, Austendike, Gedney Dyke, Thorpe Fendykes, Quadring Eaudike, Dyke.

Old Leake, Leake Commonside, Leake Gride, New Leake, Leake Ings.

Pinchbeck, Pinchbeck Bars, Swallowbeck, Pinchbeck West, Fulbeck, Woodbeck, Sudbrooke, Binbrook, Sedgebrook.

Chainbridge, Cuckoo Bridge, Fosdyke Bridge, Swineshead Bridge, Hubbert’s Bridge, Gipsey Bridge, Bishopbridge, Bracebridge, Friday Bridge, Pondersbridge, Tattershall Bridge, Forty Foot Bridge.

Stickford, Tetford, Belchford, Snarford, Ludford, Spalford, Stapleford, Langford, Sleaford, Hazelford, Bottesford, Scalford, Twyford, Greatford.

Owston Ferry, East Ferry, High Ferry.

Holbeach St Matthew, Holbeach St Marks, Holbeach St Johns, Marshland St James, Sutton St James, Sutton St Edmund, Deeping St James, Deeping St Nicholas, Wisbech St Mary, Wainfleet St Mary, Witham St Hughs, Saltfleetby St Peter, Toynton St Peter, Thorpe St Peter, Walpole St Peter, Walpole St Andrew, Terrington St John, Tilney St Lawrence, Theddlethorpe St Helen, Wiggenhall St Germans, Wiggenhall St Mary the Virgin, Wiggenhall St Mary Magdalen, Toynton All Saints, Saxby All Saints, Wainfleet All Saints, Theddlethorpe All Saints.

Ring’s End, Fen End, Surfeet Seas End, Tongue End, Brand End, Moulton Seas End, Scrane End, Kirton End, Frampton West End, Fishmere End, North End, Benington Sea End, Halltoft End, Ashington End, Gedney Drove End, Tilney High End, Bridge End, Castle End, Church End.

Eastville, Midville, Wyville, Frithville, Little London, Jerusalem, Gibraltar, Boston, New England, Newark, New York.

In summer the sky is most times blue.

A blue so pure & bright that it hurts to look into it.

A blue so deep that if you look straight up you have to grab

something for fear of falling

in.

The light pouring which pours from out of this blueness sears

everything it can reach

/ fields of wheat / canals & drains / tarmac roads /

In summer the sky is blue & lifted high

a shimmering blue silence from which

there is no hiding place

(save) beneath the surface of the land.

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he came back for the taste of her

like he was passing through the sky

to go somewhere and do something

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In autumn the sky is most times white.

A ragged, dirty white.

And you wonder how this could be the same sky but it is.

The earth turns thick & hard beneath it.

Winds rip through the clouds and

slashes of light

run across the fields and vanish over the horizon and leave

the land as heavy as before.

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The colours of the earth change. Westry

Fields & ditches clog with leaves. Whittlesey

Rivers swell. Pondersbridge

Forty Foot Bridge

Ticks Moor

West Moor

Ten Mile Bank

Salter’s Lode

Outwell

Friday Bridge

If you had stayed at home it

would never have happened.

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We know the seasons are changing mostly by the shape & colour of the sky.

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s t r e t c h e d o v e r u s f r o m

h o r i z o n t o h o r i z o n

t h e l e n g t h & b r e a d t h o f a d a y.

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In winter the sky is most times grey.

A dark & bruising grey.

The days shorten.

The distance between the horizon shrinks. What little light

seeps down is thick & lifeless.

In winter there’s no danger of falling into the sky

Our bodies anchored to the ground by the weight of the light.

The earth hides secrets.

The land is silent.

The drains & canals will freeze and be covered in snow.

The snow will come fast in the night and

block the roads & drains and leave

nothing

but whiteness

(all lines & textures concealed).

The land giving back light to the sky.

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In spring the sky is all these colours. Spring comes

gradually here.

Broad beans & early wheat break through the surface of the soil.

Pale green buds squeeze out from dry branches

while the sky fades to light grey & white & finally a faint blue.

The air cleanses itself is cleansed, with by

a warm wind from the south

bursts of sparkling rain

The sky lifts away from the ground.

those arms lifted

up to the sky.

The horizons draw apart

and stretch the sky taut and

space & light flood back into our lives.

that arching back.

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This is the time when change

is a daily force:

woodlands smeared green overnight

fields purpled with lavender behind your back

wives & mothers & daughters pregnant by dawn

This is the time when the floods come

and the ditches and barriers have to be built again,

a little deeper

a little higher

But still, with all this life bursting up towards the sky,

(the earth holds secrets)

(the sky watches)

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The hills having eyes means nothing here.

The land is level and all we have watching over us is the sky.

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This place I’ve grown up in is a landscape of lines,

a world of the parallel & perpendicular.

The straightest line of all is the hard blur of the horizon.

- - — - - — - - — - - — - - — - - — -

A single unbending line which encircles the day.

- - — - - — - - — - - — - - — - - — -

When I was As a child I would spin around

with my eyes on the horizon trying to catch the place where

the line turned or bent but I never could

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the mystery of the straight, encircling line.

- - — - - — - - — - - — - - — - - — -

(All the) other lines find their way to the horizon sooner or later

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High lines, (Years ago, playing in the

connecting lines: telegraph wires furrows while your father

railway tracks watched, you looked up +

canals saw a line of boats gliding

drains through the sky. The fear

rivers you felt, seeing those

boats above your head.)

Low lines,

boundary lines: ditches (No hedges or walls

roads between fields here,

paths only the ditches + roads.

Ditches to stop the sea

reclaiming what it owns.)

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The lines of this place are sometimes washed out by floods.

Obliteration.

Water erasing the (Cornelius the Dutchman

manmade geometry digging his way through

restoring this place the 17th century.)

to the sea it once was.

Sometimes it will be rain, swelling the rivers until they break

through

and rush over the fields,

settling across hundreds of acres for weeks at a time,

sky below as well as above, clouds & seabirds gliding overhead

sky above as well as below, clouds & seabirds gliding overland.

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Or snow will cover everything, blocking drains & roads,

……….

Mothers forbidding their children to leave the house.

Lost children in the fields.

You said you don’t remember your mother telling you to go out,

but you would have been too young to remember/to go out.

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Sometimes the fog

will

come in with

the

floods and

our world

will

become

unmappable, alien,

precarious.

I didn’t say you said it was my fault

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These same floods that obliterate bring life to the land, make

our soil the richest in the country.

At ploughing time the smell of the earth hangs in the air,

a smell like apple bruises and horse chestnut shells.

A smell of pure energy.

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Your father claimed this ground

would grow five-pound notes

if you planted a shilling.

That I would like to see.

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Flatness | straight lines | a manmade geometry.

The sound of metal on soil // the sky above

This is the landscape you I we grew up in.

This is the landscape which grew us which made us.

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The sea wants to be here. we shouldn’t be surprised when

will give to that

Our engineering gives way before the sea’s desire.

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You didn’t say that. That’s not what you said

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to name these places

The words we’ve been given by our ancestors have no poetry.

Our waterways are called drains,

not rivers or streams or brooks or burns:

Thirty Foot Drain

Sixteen Foot Drain

(and the closest to grandeur, this) Hundred Foot Drain

our farms named for anonymity: Lower Field Farm

Middle Field Farm

Sixteen Foot Farm

People don’t come here because they’ve been

People are not drawn here by the romantic sound of the place.

People don’t much come here at all, and so the landscape

remains empty and

retains its beauty and

the beauty of this place is not in the names but the shapes

the flatness / hugeness / completeness of the landscape.

Only what is beneath the surface of the earth is hidden

(and sometimes not even that)

and everything else is made visible beneath the sky.

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When the dawn comes

when the first light slides in from the east

the sky is the colour of marbles.

A thin, glassy grey.

Everything is dark away to the west,

silhouettes & shadows clinging to the last of the night,

but at the eastern edge of the horizon there is light.

And If you have the time to stand and watch,

you can trace the movement of the light into the morning.

The lines of fields & roads creeping

towards you and then away to the west

until the whole geometry of the day is revealed.

And The water in the drains begins to steam & shine.

And you’ll notice The workers start to arrive,

stepping out from minibuses and spreading across the fields,

shadows crouching & shuffling

along the crop-lines lines of the crops.

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When the mid-morning comes

the sky is the colour of flowering linseed

a pale-blue hint of

the full colour to come

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Sometimes there will be clouds, joining together to form arches

from horizon to horizon

stretching

tearing

scattering patterns across the fields.

Sometimes these clouds bring rain,

and the sky will darken

But the rain will pass

the sky be brighter clearer

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The workers more visible,

returning to their trays & boxes after the rain,

lifting food from the ground,

sorting

trimming

laying down

moving along the line.

Occasionally one will stand, lifting cramped arms to the sky before

returning to the soil.

Those lifted arms, that arching back.

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When the noon-time comes

(when there’s a moment of stillness and silence)

the sky is the colour of the summer noon:

a blue with no comparison

the pure deep blue of the summer noon in this place.

No clouds

no movement

you hold your breath and turn and follow the circle of the

unbending horizon line horizon’s circle.

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The workers eat their lunch in silence, gathered beside the road,

looking out across the fields

the way fishermen watch the sea.

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Celery &

spring onions &

leeks &

lettuces &

fragile crops which would be ruined by machinery.

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When the late afternoon comes

(when the light is only beginning to fade from the day fall)

the sky is the colour of a freshly forming bruise.

The workers are slowing their pace

pausing more frequently to savour

the warmth of the soil in their hands

aware now of the slight chill in the air

waiting

for the word that the day is over.

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- - — - - —- - — - - —

What placement can do.

- - — - - — - - — - - —

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When the evening comes

(before the embers of the closing of the day)

the sky is the colour of your father’s eyes.

A darkening, muddied blue,

hiding shadows

turning away. Awake, still;

alive, just;

but going.

Going gently.

The workers have left the field and collected their pay,

measured by the weight of the food they have gathered.

The marks of their footprints are fading,

dusted over with soil blown in by a wind from the sea.

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What he thought he’d find.

There is no history here.

No dramatic finds of Saxon villages.

No burial mounds or hidden treasures.

No Tollund Man.

Only the rusted anchors our ploughs drag up,

left when these fields were the sea.

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Those rusted anchors have been sunk in the soil

ever since before it was drained, and sometimes

the turning of the earth brings them closer to the surface

and sometimes

it will sends them further down.

Buried out there at the edge of the field.Butyouwerethere

The sound of plough metal on soil, the roar

of stones & earth.

As he/it Tumbles further down or is hauled to the surface.

break the flat surface

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That field. In that field. Down by that field.

The floods have come, again,

the road like a causeway

across the sea.

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T h e w a t e r s t r e t c h e d a s f a r a s t h e h o r i z o n

t h e

h o r i z o n

l o s t

i n t h e

t h i c k

f o g.

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Telegraph poles dotted

across the water

like the masts

of sunken boats.

The cars marooned. High & dry.

Piercing red lights suspended in a long line through the fog.

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The mists of yesterday have disappeared,

the sky reflected clearly in the flooded fields

the sky reflected clearly in the flooded fields.

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The day is broken open & clear:

the great ship of Ely Cathedral

just visible

across the water.

And we were there.

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