A Walk on Dunwich Beach
I just love this place (photo c. 1900 . . . church long gone now)
Wind rouses my hair on Dunwich Beach.
A tangle rendered to a messy thatch.
Waves churn mud coloured sand.
Currents smooth stones torn from
defenceless cliffs by winter storms.
One for every human on the planet.
Plenty to spare for Suffolk rockeries
or repairs to flint faced Norfolk cottages.
Useful nodules mingling with fossil shells.
A pebble bed for bleached tree-stumps —
coastal gardens, stolen at sea.
Fragments of thirteenth-century bricks
returned to land by North Sea tides.
Norman stone from drowned churches
slowly ground to sand. Gravestones
worn wordless by shifting sea-bed gravel.
Rare bones of buried Dunwich burgers
lie naked under cold winter sun.
© Guaj 2023
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Gosh! That really is an brilliant observation of time, let alone giving the reader your knowledge of the place. Another of ‘those places’ that become hallowed in our hearts and minds. It feels a privilege to have you share it.
Allen
Thank you for finding this, Allen. It seems if posts are not on the front page they are often missed. Dunwich beach is a fascinating place. Looking out to sea and knowing under the waves is a drowned port that was as big as London’s 600 years ago. Each year more and more of the soft cliffs crumble into the North sea. I often visited it when I lived in Norfolk. My dad and grandad loved it as well because there was(is?) a brilliant fish and chips restaurant and also you could (can?) buy fresh fish direct from the fishermen.… Read more »