Poetry by Clare Best

Treasure Ground

Gull Field, Chittle Lane, Pyewipe, Frampton,
Lammings, Daughtons, Treasure Ground;

Hawthorns, Wigtoft, Struggs Hill, Mandyke,
Seas End, Holbeach, Algarkirk;

names raised like bog oaks from the fens,
briny as North Sea gales, marsh-wet names

for deeping, dredging; names cursed
and kissed down generations flooded,

drained, reclaimed, converted; names
to harrow, seed or chant like prayer;

Hawthorns, Wigtoft, Struggs Hill, Mandyke,
Seas End, Holbeach, Algarkirk;

Silt Pits, Tunnards, Bloodsworth, Goatmans,
Pinchbeck, Fosdyke, Trumpet Hall.