Exeter St Thomas

By Ray Schaufeld

Mon, 14 Jul 2014
  • 3650 reads
11 comments
 
A sportswear lad lounges in the white concrete shelter
As I shuttle through the drowsy branchline
Its entrance unmanned.
 
Inner town generous C19 dignity
Of gravestone church, pram-mother,
Lurcher mutt; infant running-arrow
Through the openfrieze canalside;
The twenties council semis here give backbone.
 
And Dyer, Coffin, Bunclark from
West Quarter houses that once moved a mile
Write soundly phrased warmhumoured prose
Yet few words fly like birds.
I stickybeak a teacher's marking
And think in half an hour
I know the place!
 
I think I see them ten years on, driving  Stagecoach
Doubledeckers, nursing in uniforms, managing shops;
Think I feel their family loyalties,
Share their Fatherchristmas Sundayroast,
Think I hear their views on immigration.
What do I know?
 
I've worked in market research.
I chart the land
As Thistown, Realplace,
 
Exeter St Thomas.
 
Certificate U
Poem
Lost and found
Travel

Comments

Submitted by jeand on

Hi Elsie

I like the way you take an ordinary visit to a town and turn it into a sunburst of words and experiences.

Beautifully done.

 

Jean

Jean Day

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

A sunburst! Beautiful coment, Jean. I've squished several notions and experiences of a district of my nearest city into a single unit. Glad you like it.                       Elsie

Submitted by Bee on

Great descriptive writing, Elsie. Market research is a good way of learning about a place and the attitudes of the people there. 

I enjoyed reading this. 

Bee

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Cheers Bee, I worked as a market research interviewer for 6 years, talking to all sorts of folks.It meant pestering the public but I met some good people and relished the diversity. The job's almost obsolete now, many surveys get done online. Thanks for your friendly comment       Elsie

Submitted by lenchenelf on

Good sense of place smiley

regards

Lena

 

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Thanks Lena, St Thomas has a real anytown vibe. When I noseyed my daughter the teacher's marking (naughty, write out 100 lines ' I must not cannibalise my relatives' lives), it was the old trade names of the school students that stayed with me,              Elsie

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Thanks for your feedback, Ben. 'Portmanteau to convey otherness', that's an astute piece of analysis       Elsie

Submitted by celticman on

few words fly like birds. Ah, know that feeling.

 

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Me too CM. I was going to write a slice of 'life writing' for this year's Wasafiri. But the Wasafiri comp is not going to fly away and it will probably take me a fortnight to knock my topic into shape so they can get my entry next year .Meanwhile the sea here is warm enough to swim in..

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Elsie, I came back to this to try to see why 'stickybeak' was getting me stuck, and then (maybe because of your comment above) I thought, 'It's like rhyming slang for 'take a peek', so then I took courage and looked it up and found the dictionary said it meant being inquisitive or prying - do you think it comes from rhyming slang or something like that?!
Visiting places you can observe interesting detail, and in market research too – although there's much you don't see, little things can be very revealing, can't they? Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Thanks for reading, Rhiannon. Yes 'stickybeak is noseyness' and you are right about little details.      Elsie