2. Melanie Challenger May 4 2009

Soul

A shadow hitched to the boot, soul's slow pace
Is the sinew of a river hauled from its bed with the sling
Of devotion beating a death-knell against the grass.
Outside the body, it cries at the horizon as a suckling
At the motherless stride. "You've forgotten me," says soul,
"Yet I'm dragged through the dirt by your purpose
And cumber; the flex of your fanatic mile."
Its thoughts prowl the acres, unpitying as the mind
Of a stoat. Otherwhere and other, dustbitten and shy, soul
Shakes itself off against the pleasure-ground.

Mile, from Old English mil, a measure of 1000 paces.

Body (At Wicken Fen)

"Mmm!" The bodies fret at the brink, the fair pace
Of their hearts rejigging the horizon. Each hand
Earths the quickening earth of their spouse, or gently stays
Their shadow as if the sun might soon leave hold of the bond.
      And every kiss or lick
Overlays a live river on the flesh as the spine and bones
Enshrine a bygone river at the body's wick,
The tongue its live end. Body delights, "See how like roddens
Our shadows are! The light by our bulks leaves a track
All around us, endlessly changing our horizons."

Brink, East Anglian Fen dialect term for river bank.
Rodden, a term from the Fens for the remains of extinct rivers before the drainage and the creation of the fenscape, called a "landscape ghost" by Canadian poet, Mark Abley.
Lick, from līc, the lost Old English word for the body.
Wick, from Old English wīc for a dwelling place, the East Anglian dialect term for a farm, and the Yorkshire dialectal term for liveliness or life.

Wicken Fen, near Melanie's home, is Britain's oldest nature reserve, founded by the National Trust. Humans have managed the Fen for centuries through the traditional methods of sedge cutting and peat digging. Arable cultivation has replaced nearly all of the former Fens. Wicken Fen is an exceptionally biologically diverse area, but its unique conditions and the difficulties of species migration has resulted in a number of high profile species extinctions, such as that of the Marsh Moth.

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