Four Poems

COCKERMOUTH

Past castle, brewery, over a sandstone bridge,
A Midland Bank, 'Fletcher's Fearless Clothing',
And huge effigy of an assassinated politician,
You come upon a Georgian grand frontage,

Still the town's 'big house', built for a Sheriff,
Not long ago ransomed from demolition
(The site an ideal one for the new bus-station)
And looked at, now, by a small bust of Wordsworth.

Turn down its by-lane leading to the river,
You'll see, fenced like a POW camp, reached by
An iron footbridge, the town's factory;
There ran a millrace,where was once a meadow,

And Derwent shuffles by it,over stones.
And if you look up the valley toward Isel
The Blindcrake to the north, cloudcatcher fells,
...