Photo by Seán Kiely

On Not Finding Bede


At the throat of the Don

        where twin Tyne tunnels

undercut Crackwillow

        we searched for you.




We searched for you

        in Go-To-Bed-At-Noons,

by Pellitory-Of-The-Wall,

        through Lady’s Bedstraw.

           

At Station Burn, Field Scabious

        could have been your glow;

Black Medic your remedy.

        We searched for you




the way Small Tortoiseshells

        and Meadow Browns

search Timothy and Tansy;

        how miners’ caged Linnets




trace Bernician sky.

        We thought we traced

your coracle over Whitburn Steel;

        clouds scattering




for your arrival, but as we looked

        beyond Souter Point

we could only see waves—

        like praying hands of saints.

This poem featured in Land of Three Rivers: The Poetry of North-East England (Bloodaxe, 2017)

Jake Morris-Campbell was born in South Shields in 1988. A recipient of New Writing North’s Andrew Waterhouse award, he has published two pamphlets of poetry: The Coast Will Wait Behind You (Art Editions North, 2015) and Definitions of Distance (Red Squirrel Press, 2012). He is completing a PhD in Creative Writing at Newcastle University. www.jakecampbell1988.blogspot.com