Bixley Church

 

A congregation
Of nettles now reclaim your
Broken, burnt-out frame.

 

 

Shipden

 

Out there under the
Waves ─ with your cottages and
Sunken church tower.

 

 

Stanford Church

 

Stranded now in the
Battle Zone ─ with your old graves
And your blast proof roof.

 

 

Tottington

 

You came back to life
As a training ground for street
Fighters and snipers.

 

 

St Felix, Babingley

 

Suffocated by
Ivy ─ your vital signs grow
Weaker and weaker.

 

 

Shotesham

 

One church is ruined;
One is abandoned; and one
Still lives on its hill.

 

 

St Edmund, Egmere

 

They stripped out the bells
From your tower and pulled down
Your nave and chancel.

 

 

Little Waxham

 

Rising out of the
Sea ─ the ghost voices of the
Old, dead villagers.

Godwick

 

Today, only the
Sheep remain ─ moving like clouds
Over the earthworks.

 

 

Little Hautbois

 

That sense of something
Vanished ─ like ghost-light fleeing
In the Bure's mirror.

 

 

Stanford

 

Among the shelling
And machine gun fire lie
Your unquiet dead.

 

 

Eccles-on-Sea

 

Impermanent still:
Beach chalets and caravans
Wait to be reclaimed.

 

 

Holkham
 

You were excluded
Permanently by Coke's
Six mile long wall.

 

 

Oxnead

 

Lady Katherine
And Sir Clement ─ frozen now
In alabaster.

 

 

Sturston

 

Your broken, sandy
Land reverted finally
To rabbit warrens.

 

 

Ashby and Oby

 

Are gone now ─ like the
Horn-helmeted Norsemen who
Seeded their place names.