| Coltishall is a busy village lying on the
River Bure - seven miles
north of Norwich. Today it
marks the end of navigation on the river but in the past
wherries could sail as far as Aylsham
with their cargoes of grain and ice and coal. Some of
these wherries would almost certainly been built at Allen's
boatyard in the village. The official head of navigation
is Horstead Lock - close to the remains of Horstead mill
- which sadly burnt down in 1963.
The Rising Sun pub at
Coltishall
In his moving poem Coltishall River - the poet Michael Mackmin
writes about a woman in a boat on the river -
glimpsed from a car window. The poem may have been
inspired by the view from the hump-backed Coltishall
Bridge which is a bottleneck on the Norwich to North
Walsham road. The poem appears in Mackmin's
collection 23 Poems which was published by Happenstance
Press. Mackmin, who lives in nearby Aylsham, is also the
editor of the renowned poetry magazine The Rialto.
Michael Mackmin © Nick Stone (It is
also said that
the ghost of Anne Boleyn's father can be seen riding
across the bridge at certain times of year.)
|
| Coltishall
River
In her black swimsuit she stands in the boat,
her feet holding the floor of the boat;
she is smiling, she is talking to someone, her hair
(fair, golden, some pale colour) is
beginning to push loose from the pins:
I am watching from the car window
this is some film I think,
the green rushes, the black of the boat, the
white of her knees, her skin, the black swimsuit,
the blue sky, and then
I have driven past.
It is not the she or I this
moment in a day, or me desiring: (what I desire,
a kiss, to be not
looking from the car window imagining more
imagining love). It is, as the saying is,
the end of a perfect day, day on the river; and it is
the sudden illumination, possible
creation of an idea of God - love
imaginable beyond this love, beginning
to push loose from the black swimsuit,
not doing so
eternally standing holding the floor of the boat,
and then
I have driven past. |
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