A River Then And A River Now
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One is the Fleet which you cannot see
The other is the Wandle flowing free,
The only one left that can still amaze
As the others did in olden days
Until the planners faced defeat
And covered the stinking rivers with concrete.
The lungs of London were buried deep
And with angry sewage are now replete
Hiding from our prying eyes to
The sadness of the Fleet’s demise.
Oh my Walbrook, Effra, Tyburn, Westbourne,
Rivers of yesteryear and now forlorn.
Let’s pray for the resurrection of the dead
For every polluted river bed
But wait
Can our requiem for the River Fleet
Change its fate
To become a eulogy against defeat.
Look instead
At a river lately back from the dead:
The Wandle flowing from Croydon to Wandsworth
Was once one of the worst rivers on earth
When the industrial revolution
Destroyed its chalk stream with pollution.
Decades of toxic waste shattered a dream
Turning the nation’s most idyllic stream
Into the most polluted in the land,
A mausoleum to progress unplanned.
But if you walk the Wandle now you’ll see
What other rivers still could be.
Volunteers working all out
Have reclaimed the river for returning trout.
Forgive me if I am sounding a bit lyrical
But is not the Wandle a riverine miracle?
Waters of wellbeing are flowing again
Nobody’s pain and everyone’s gain.
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Photo from the South East Rivers Trust.
Buy a whole book of poems by Victor Keegan HERE.