Return to David's Members Page

Inspired by the  January 2008 ‘Conflict’ Workshop

We were asked to select an photographic image from a selection offered and then to write two poems, one in the 1^st person and a second in the 3^rd person

Conway Street

Up Close and Personal

This is where I lived until yesterday.

There. That one there - on the right.

Number 20. The one with no roof or upstairs

and our settee hanging from the window.

Where are my photos and my memories now?

Charred in the ruins - shredded into small pieces -

lying in the space that was Mrs Smith at number 18?

Today they lie reflected in the wetness of my eyes,

along with this stark image of total desolation.

Sometime hence these will just be memories,

when time has, perhaps, healed the gaping wound.

 

From A Distance

This was once one small part of my home town

and the photo was taken soon after the night

the fully laden German bomber crashed.

At least that’s what some people think happened.

Others say it was but a single land mine

exploding beneath its gently swaying parachute

that laid waste all below in one vivid orange flash.

Slates, rafters, bricks, furniture, life’s treasures,

memories strewn as far as the eye can see.

In a single blinding second they became history.

The very essence of this small community is now

naught but an indelible image in shades of grey.

 

David Slade

 

Slipstream Poetry Workshop on ‘Conflict‘                  This image is of the Conway Street area

Led by David Slade 7^th January 2008.                                   Landport, Portsmouth

Exercise in working from photos                                          after the air raid on 10^th/11^th January 1941

to produce a 1^st & 3^rd person perspective.