Three Suffolk Poems Poem by Michael Regan

Aldeburgh

Where earth, sea and sky conjoin
and hedged about with banks of shingle
shaped by a relentless sea-a town.

Fish, music and a famous poet,
and for me, here, now,
it's words that come more readily.

Along its one main street:
multi-coloured, many- shaped
dwellings [no two the same]
cling closely together
as if for protection against the
storms of winter.

Lord's Day morning
and at the Parish Church
of St. Peter and St. Paul
they're ringing the changes
[but only a touch]

Later we take the road to Snape,
hopefullyto arrive
in time for lunch.

The North Sea

In calm-
shimmering
leaden grey,
old gold and the
pale translucent green
of certain kinds of jade.

In storm-
its immeasurable
force pounds, smooths
and heaves into
ridges the living
rock it shatters into
countless fragments.

In the dark months
it conveys that wind
from the Urals that
withers the land
and bringsnumb misery
to everyliving thing.

Dunwich

Man versus nature,

and here nature
[so far] has won.

And that is not
entirely displeasing
because we need
reminders of our place in the
scheme of things.

Not sudden painful reminders
[earthquake, storm, flood]
but rather to see
the slow retreat
of humanity
in this fragment-
all that is left
as witness
to centuries of,
no doubt
necessary, toil.