Whiteadder Water

Our last morning in Berwick-upon-Tweed, before heading home, back up to Edinburgh - we've had a great weekend, helped by decent weather, but I also really do like this corner of Northern England ...

... and needless to say, I've managed to acquire a new poetry collection - by a local Poet (from just across the Border), Jessie Lamont. It's a 2016 [re-published] pamphlet of her complete collected works.

Here's one about the Whiteadder Water, whose junction with the River Tweed we did walk past yesterday ;-)


The Whiteadder

Like you, radiant river,
My mind would flow for ever
Over rock and stone
In a land that lies alone:
By recondite delays
Along the flowery ways,
Where higher branches hide,
By narrow banks and wide
To the rhododendrons' gate.
Hills were your first state.
Now the land is low.
By field and wood you go
Till your waters gently lead
At length into the Tweed.
River, shy and slight,
River, my delight,
Like you my spirit roves
Happiest in green groves!

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Jessie Lamont (1910-1999)

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