Yes Raynes Park and Sutton are good models for remote Romano-Celtic towns
but perhaps substitute Bankers for pirates?
I am not sure if the new year has arrived yet all these bloody time warps
and leaves on the line
Cheer P your fan

-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Lawrence Upton
Sent: 08 January 2015 14:20
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Poem attributed to Elidius

I see what you mean.
I felt the need for a break from the written graphics with a view to
resuming in a few week maybe. So who better than Elid.
I turned this one up and tweaked it a little. I've never really decided when
my Elid was on Ennor - 8th to 11th century is the commonly accepted idea.
Somewhere or other there's a claim that he converted Olaf Trygvasson,
which'd place him in the latter half of the 9th.
But at this point I was trying out having him around about the time that the
Roman Empire was pulling out - presumably quite early down there. Once
things began de-urbanising I can't think there was much traffic to remote
cult sites

Oh blah blah words verbal diarrhea - what struck me today when I dug it out
and read it through was how much like the contemporary world it sounds

Maybe substitute jihadists for pirates.... (In the somewhat dodgy
historical sense of the Cornish mystery plays (14th century), Pontius Pilate
was a follower of Mahomed!

Sure you wanted to know all that; but yes unwittingly I did express my own
contemporary angst as I endeavoured to imagine the collapse of a remote
Romano-Celtic town. Raynes Park or Sutton. I walked down here this morning
in the rain - bloody conservative government - and saw a sign saying "enjoy
sutton" but the Wandle here is only a trickle

L





On 8 January 2015 at 12:26, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Was he writing about Raynes Park -boats Wandle? 'there is evidence:
> decay, poverty' P
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of Lawrence Upton
> Sent: 08 January 2015 10:46
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Poem attributed to Elidius
>
> Few boats put out; and fewer now arrive.
>
> It is seasonal *and* it is permanent.
>
> Once there were more than one a day, with hopes
>
> of new buildings and new businesses. Today
>
> it is unusual seeing outsiders;
>
> and winter makes it worse. All this I'm told;
>
> though there is evidence: decay, poverty
>
> and fear in the midst of signs of past prosperity.
>
>
>
> Some still come. Two were here this afternoon,
>
> staring at maps, at us, asking for beds.
>
> No one tells me anything. Each guards its news
>
> in case there is profit, the fools. Blank looks
>
> become smug looks, bags jangling with bright coins
>
> hidden by hastily gathered clothes. Their greed
>
> seems habitual. There is no desperation
>
>
>
>
> [Elidius is one of the names of one who may have lived at some time
> after the Roman period on Scilly, or, as it then seems to have been
> called, Ennor.
> There is no evidence of him apart from the earlier name of St Helen's
> island, where it is said he may have been buried, Insula Sancti
> Elidii. His feast day is 8th August. Until now he has had no
> hagiographer. ]
>
> Apologies for posting a day late
>