poems of light and landscape in Lancaster 
a litfest project


---

THE QUAY                                                                by mike barlow

The Quay
On bright evenings you can look east 

   

Millennium Bridge
I tread the deck of midnight, docked

   

Dawn
No longer dreaming but not yet conscious

   

The Light of Day
A city built on trade, sea passage, risk

---

bashful alley                                             by Dinesh Allirajah

i. Silver fag packet crests a mud-slick wave

ii. ‘Mandie! Waz Ere’ in black marker 

iii. Your footsteps in the       passage 

iv. This time of morning is presided over by

---

lancaster train station                              by kim moore

That summer
Trains come in with darkened windows. 

The Station Master
I promised you I would come again 

The Last Train
Her quiet movements, the soft folding 

The Morning Commute
Shapes announce themselves in the dark 

---

skerton bridge                                                  by david tait

First Light  At this hour the river is full of the night. 

Swan Light  The slow conveyor of the river 

Half Light  Be here when the swallows make way for the bats

Dying Light  I’m staring at the windows of Mainway Flats

---

the stone standing in Greaves park  by Carole Coates

When God was an Englishman  
one of his favoured sons 

We think we may have seen the Perseid Shower  
like someone out beyond Pluto striking matches

New light will find us out  
with its passion for details. 

Daylight is domestic  
and makes the stone a garden ornament, 

---

lune AQUEDUCT                                             by ron scowcroft

i. In their day they called this ‘art’,

ii. Late afternoon: kids, bright as pick and mix, taking the cut,

iii. Diorama – anthracite and lime

iv. Cold light of dawn,

---

jubilee tower                                             by elizabeth burns

i. Here’s the place on the road where you stop: stop to breathe 

ii. Here’s where you stop to watch the setting sun –

iii. Here’s the place where you stop and look up

iv. Here’s a place to watch the day beginning, 

---

loyn bridge                                                         by jane routh

i. Headwaters, drawn from Green Bell, 

ii. A column of gnats above the cutwater’s apex.

iii. Such a small lane for a bridge of such substance.

iv. This is the landscape’s intimate hour, arranging

---

alexandra square, lancaster university     by andrew mcmillan

         
        composed tower       witness      no crime

  three men       lie down       a hole      alive

  no light      the belly      no prayers      his eyes

  mounted      head again      back in

---

by the mouth of the lune                          by sarah hymas

i. Larger than the sky, it is a sponge

ii. As light twines to dark

iii. However black the night

iv. Dawn is as unknown as the depths

---

---