WATCH THE TOWN CONTRACT

I spend a very enjoyable afternoon this week picnicking with the Secret Poets on Babacombe Downs. It is always a joy to meet up and the conversation and constructive feedback is superb. Thank you.
Here's a revised poem. You can read the earlier draft here.
There have been a number of changes, though I am not sure the poem is finished.

on first hearing that the 256 bus route has been discontinued

1. so called progress

trumpeted efficiencies

planned changes

equals

more people fewer buses

the 256 has run its course

now joins the other phantom routes

those ghost transport numbers

that fade when the last driver dies

and the final passenger forgets

2.

autumn comes to Wolverhampton

the chill of looming winter

at the concrete finger bus stop

Rachel waits most week days

for thirty years or more stoic

buses are as regular

as politicians promises

there is no poetry on the number sixteen

just smudged windows

through which to watch

the town contract

A couple of lines have been changed around to aid the poem to read more fluently. Reading your work aloud is essential. You need to hear the sounds of the poem. Poetry was after all an oral art form.
For me the poem captures the times. Our high streets contract and coarsen. We are a collection of individuals not a community.

I received my copy of the Kathryn Williams Anthology yesterday and what a treasure trove of delights it is.
At 20 cds I'm still working my way through the beautiful music it contains.

Until next time.