Selective memories by Gerald Dampier

Gerald

Gerald

Poet by night, university Teaching Fellow by day, Gerald Dampier lives and works in the South-East of England. Previous poetic publications include 'Curious Creatures: poems for all the family, including the dog' (Kindle books).

That summer's evening...
               Sultry sunlight mottled the surface of the river. 
               We heard the mallard drakes
               quack, dropping in sequence to the water, 
               symmetric ripples in their wakes.

At that moment...
               The ducks owned all the water.
                Haughty pigeons cooed, perched high on branches, 
                looking down on all below.
                We owned the entire tow path,
                and on the further bank
                geese bathed in the late evening glow.

But now I know...
               That while those pastoral sights were real,
               the sound track - the gentle hum of insects, 
               the breeze, the birds, the water - is in my head. 
               For the sounds were surely post-industrial – 
               car horns, taxis, lorries, tyres -
               from the busy road bridge overhead.

But still ...
              At dusk the silent deer came down to drink 
              the muddied river waters,
              and wide-eyed cattle settled to protect 
              their wooded night-time quarters.
              As distant engines roared.

Selective memories of ...
             The River Wey; the motorway:
             side by side, but worlds apart -
             an expressway; and a less stress way.
             Pervasive noise, a million cars,
             but by us in the slow lane, all ignored.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Also check out

Post
Leaving and Arriving

1 Sep, 2023

Longlisted for the 2023 Write about Walking A/way competition.

Post
New
Stories of place from Regional New South Wales

5 Feb, 2024

Australian arts organisation, Orana Arts is partnering with walk · listen · create, to offer a prize in the new writing competition, Neighbourhood Narratives - stories around us. An invitation has been extended to creatives, living and working in Regional New South Wales (NSW), to write about Regional NSW—a region being any town, small city or area that falls beyond the major capital cities.

Post
Walking Away from Fear

1 Sep, 2023

Longlisted for the 2023 Write about Walking A/way competition.

Post
Foul Weather, Wild Fowl

1 Sep, 2023

Longlisted for the 2023 Write about Walking A/way competition.

Post
I can’t help it

1 Sep, 2023

Longlisted for the 2023 Write about Walking A/way competition.

Post
Clear Line of Sight

1 Sep, 2023

Longlisted for the 2023 Write about Walking A/way competition.

Post
Walking A/way with the prizes…

24 Sep, 2023

At the Sound Walk Stories Sunday showcase event of new writing, at which the shortlisted poems and stories from our 2023 Walking A/way themed writing competition, were read by their inspiring authors, we learnt which of them walked away with the prizes.

Post
Chiltern Walks No.13: Aston Rowant Reserve

1 Sep, 2023

Longlisted for the 2023 Write about Walking A/way competition.

Write About Walking and Listening
winner
Blind March to London, April 5th – 25th 1920 (‘Social Justice Not Charity’) by Lydia Kennaway

1 Sep, 2021

Post
Serenade

1 Sep, 2023

Longlisted for the 2023 Write about Walking A/way competition.

Write About Walking and Listening
longlist
Winterfold Forest by Paul Roden

1 Sep, 2021

Write About Walking and Listening
longlist
Fatherland by Maggie McShane

1 Sep, 2021