Thames Memory

I knew the river's smell
long before concern
and government control
cleaned the filth from
it's brown mud of water
choked by centuries misuse
and human defecation,
when on nights where
chilled air met warm water
thick fog rose mingling
with the smoke of countless
chimmneys spewing remnants
of burning coal,
and stench of sulphur,
sewage,
and decaying fish
mixed with stink of rotting mud
and seaweed
caught the throat
in grip of lung-heaved nausea.

And I know it's aroma now,
Still strong with old-age and senility
but fresh with cleanliness,
rain-soaked earth redolence,
all smoke replaced by
smokeless heat,
sewage treated,
pea-soup fogs all gone,
and sometimes, standing on
the Queen's Bridge
above the Dartford Tunnel
I can feel the freshening
of the eastern wind
upon my face,
and smell the ocean
rising up the weary banks.

About This Poem

Style/Type: Free verse

Editing Stage: Editing - rough draft

About the Author

Region, Country: Earth Vicinity (within a five light-year radius), ZZC

Favorite Poets: John Donne, T.S. Eliot, Serendipity, Emily Dickenson, Kailashana, Charles Bukowski, Kabir, Rett, Dalton, W. B. Yeats, William Blake, Rainer Maria Rilke, and many other Neopoet poets; Neopoet has heavily influenced my poetry and my ability to write it well.

Comments

Race_9togo

14 years 6 months ago

Hi Shirl,

Happy New Year!
I am glad that you enjoyed this. I have no idea what inspired it, I was just thinking about working in London many (many) years ago, and out this came.

Race_9togo

14 years 6 months ago

Ian

LOL...Woolwich Ferry in the summer moonlight IS romantic! No glitch in your mind at all, lol.
Glad that you enjoyed it. Yes, isn't it good to see the Old Lady clean again, isn't it?

Geezer

14 years 6 months ago

I would think...

this to be more along the line of commentary, but still very thoughtful and provoking. It always amazes me, that we will invent technology to repair and restore the things that we should have saved from destruction, by inventing something to prevent it in the first place. I think I make sense here? Anyways, Nice write!

Race_9togo

14 years 6 months ago

Isn't most poetry commentary, of one form or another?

LOL I dunno, to be honest. Iwas just dregding up old memories and linking them with old tales, then comparing the present reality to that past.
Glad that you liked it.

lou

14 years 6 months ago

Hi

A very evocative poem, could almost smell the Thames. The only thing I would change is line five ' it's brown mud of water,' how about ' it's muddied water,' or ' murky water,' or ' it's opaque water.? or not its up to you.

Lou

Race_9togo

14 years 6 months ago

Hey Lou,

Thanks for reading. You know I tried all of your suggestions, but I kept it as is because that's how it used to look and smell, as if the river itself had turned solid, in places!
Thanks for the ideas, though! Much appreciated!
:)