Tags
'scape, 2013, bench, childhood, electric, emergence, grass, grey, leaf, London, Nithdale Road, orange, Plum Lane, Plumstead, purple, rooftops, shadow, Shooters Hill, shrub, streetlight, sunlight, Thames, Woolwich, writing
up on the hill
there is a bench
and a streetlamp which casts
introspective orange
over shrubs and grass
making them purple and indistinct
but over descending rooftops
and terraced rows
the city leafs out into evening
from the grey Thames
wet with electric sunlight
‘up on the hill’ is not the same ‘up on the hill’ which is the start of Steely Dan’s ‘Aja’, but it starts from a similar call; the ‘hill’ is Shooters Hill which rucks up in the south east London basin just short of the Thames; the ‘bench’ is one of a few on a piece of land at the corner of Nithdale Road and Plum lane overlooking Plumcroft school, the lower slopes of Plumstead and the sprawl of the developing Woolwich Arsenal estate to the Thames as you raise your gaze from the ground, eveningly; this is a small, open patch of land which doesn’t obviously seem to belong to anyone, but is important to any awkward teenager who may wonder if their way is in writing …
————w(O)rmholes________________________________|—–
bench wormhole: bougainvillea
childhood & emergence & shadow wormhole: the start of adolescence
grey wormhole: and that’s where I are
London wormhole: tabla
orange wormhole: stacked
Plumstead wormhole: finding my own true nature – Plumstead, Woolwich, 190915
purple wormhole: don’t look / at her eyes – poewieview #18
rooftops wormhole: keep the light off
streetlight wormhole: sixty four sixty five – poewieview #1
Thames wormhole: dream 260815
Woolwich wormhole: crease and score of silver-morning sky
writing wormhole: first Spring storm
grown up teenagers may also wonder hopefully
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… wonder how on earth they got to be 56 and relatively unscathed
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” the city leafs out into evening
from the grey Thames
wet with electric sunlight”
beautiful, evocative lines
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thank you, Jennifer
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Shooters Hill also features in the opening line of David Bowie’s “Diamond Dogs”.
Made me almost homesick.
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(isn’t it ‘Poacher’s Hill’ … although I must admit I had to look up the lyrics); I’ll try harder next time – get you totally homesick; good to hear from you, I hope life is well with you
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