Brightstowe

By catherine poarch

Sat, 05 Dec 2015
  • 938 reads
4 comments
 

Here is the map by Smith on the hallway wall.

The river leans back like a cyclist, begging a fall.

The sheep are as huge as mammoths, by Temple Gate.

It’s the curious world that was 1568.

                                                                      

The buildings are colour coded. The Walls are brown.

The castle itself has not yet been knocked down.

The people are giants.  Their gaze is confident still.

They can’t see the poor from the top of the big, green hill.

Certificate U
Poem

Comments

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Clever, bringing those odd old maps with their mixture of pictures and streetways into mind. And subtly implying to gap between the few rich and the poor they may not 'see'. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by catherine poarch on

Thank you, Rhiannon, very much. It is an odd old map. Not inaccurate but oddly proportioned by today's view. It's a sort of snapshot of a year or time.

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Your poem, Catherine, could not be more timely  as I am in the process of reading "The Map that changed the world" by Simon Winchester, which is about William Smith and his map making. Thanks for sharing it.

 

Submitted by catherine poarch on

What a coincidence! I knew nothing about the Bristo one till recently. I'm no geography expert but love mops because they makes sense of history. Thanks very much.