On 6th March 2008, The Abingdon Herald reported that the Abingdon Share a Poem group had produced a book for the Abingdon Arts Festival. The poetry group were 10 year old and still going strong. In September 2020 they are still going – if a little older.
At the September 2020 meeting of the group, on Zoom yesterday, Justin Gosling read one of his poems …
The Thames at Abingdon
I love the Thames at Abingdon –
The wintry roar below the weir;
The angry mud race swirling past
St Helen’s round to Culham Reach;
And then the surge to burst its banks
And seize the Isle of Andersey
And all the fields to Culham Bridge –
Triumphant arching salmon leap
From river to resplendent lake.
I love the lazy summer Thames,
Placid now between its banks,
With empty cartons, coots and cans
And boats and bottles bobbing by,
And regal swans
In stately eddies drifting down
Between the meadows and the town.
I love the cool autumnal Thames,
Still beneath the thin white mist;
And far, yet near, the cooling towers,
Each with its plume of shining cloud;
The guardsman poplars, tall and bare,
Turned copper by the sinking sun.
Stormy, empty, busy, calm –
I love the Thames at Abingdon.
© Justin Gosling
I came to the group late, maybe ten years ago. I love the mix of poems written by members, members with academic backgrounds, and yet not intimating to those of us who look up new poems online, or just bring something “we learned in school and liked.”
Perfect! I really enjoyed reading this. It is atmospheric, charming , beguilingly simple. The words flow like the River. It’s the sort of thing you want to read aloud because the words are so beautiful.
Many thanks Judith. I’m delighted that you decided to read it aloud: I tend to mouth things through to myself before going on paper, and so think of them as being heard rather than read. So thank you, Justin