In case you haven’t noticed, I have a somewhat curious obsession with bridges, particularly bridges on the Tees. After writing an article about a trip up one of the best-known bridges of the North East: The Transporter, I was approached by their events officer to host a seminar about the cultural importance of the bridge. During the preliminery meeting I was lucky enough to get my hands on a copy of a book that had been produced for the bridge’s centenary – Everything Flows: A Celebration of the Transporter Bridge in Poetry.

Expertly edited, this book delivers individually poignant poems and also works collectively as a weaving narrative – pulling together the threads of a complicated local history. Featuring both bold imagery and endearing colloquialisms, these compositions are a heady cocktail of memory, nostalgia and regional pride – but there’s no sugar coating here. Although there is ample reference to the Saturday afternoon football cheers reverberating from Riverside Stadium (situated a stone’s throw from the structure) the bridge’s unfortunate reputation as an iconic suicide spot is also sensitively explored.

For those unfamiliar with the bridge itself, it is one of the few remaining transporter bridges in the world and is one of the most prominent emblems of the Teesside skyline. By day it is an angular marvel, piercing the grey sky with its  steely geometry and at night it is a blue beacon in a swamp of yellow street lights. Its opening ceremony was conducted on the 17th October 1911 and since then it has taxied workers across the river Tees at Port Clarence.

The book offers a truly layered understanding of why this bridge is so deeply embedded in the identity of the North East and why the residents of the much-maligned towns of Middlesbrough and Stockton hold it in such high regard. The carefully-chosen words, written by members of the local community, are peppered with dreamy artistic interpretations of the bridge that are certain to delight. Plus, rhyming the word “daughter” and “Transporter” is bordering on Lilly Allen-esque lyrical genius – I’m sure you’ll agree.

Time to go and write my own lyrical ode to my favourite bridge methinks. Now, what rhymes with gondola…?

Sally’s legs are long                           firm clenched cobras
coiling your boyish                           body. Hissing her lies
at you: “You are using                      her.”  “You are a man.”
She is temptation                               constricting, corrupting
you are her prey                                of pure blood, drinking
gladly of her                                        venom.  Her loose
limbs devour you.                              Her tight thighs offer
solace – for tonight.                            But at dawn they will shed
the limp skin of                                   you. Slithering
into the warm bed                             of her next virgin.

Notes

This poem is an experiment with graphology. This basically means altering the appearance of a poem in some way to modify/emphasise meaning. I kind of like the interuption of flow on key words, using this technique allows important concepts to hang until the next line, forcing the reader to think about a particular idea for just a few seconds longer. If I was really clever I would be able to craft the stanzas as stand alone poems so they made sense if you read them down as well as across but unfortunately my skill doesn’t stretch that far. At least not with this subject. A worthy target for future compositions though.

You skim flat pebbles, disturbing

thoughts once stowed beneath smooth waters.

Under a slippery rock,

a Minnow loiters

like the grudging, silver

silence still left over from last night.

Ducks squabble over nothing

in the static air of dusk

a smudged sun of orange chalk sinks;

the blurry doodle of a dreamy child

submerged in the lake, disolving

all that remains

of Tuesday.

Notes

Similar to the previously published poem Fishing this poem uses enjambment, many of the lines bleed into the next and offer multiple interpretations. It’s a shorter poem so every word carries more weight and meaning. Again the ideas in this poem are based on issues within a difficult relationship; unfortunately it tends to be the negative end of the emotional spectrum that most frequently inspires me to write – bet you guys can’t wait to read my novel now! Still, for the next poem I promise to change tack slightly. To promise something upbeat, however, would probably be promising too much.