Ely Fields

Ely Fields

Neil Leadbeater

All over Ely, cathedral bells. Campanologists
calling the faithful to prayer.
Those were the mornings when waterborne trade
(cloth from Newmarket, clunch from Reach)
lay silent in Elien; bulk transport
fender to fender, Sabbath-still
in the fens.

At first you took it for a lacklustre landscape
the place where Cnut was charmed by song
and Hereward vanished from view
but now you have learned to read its text
to scan the reens for rain-stained stalks
highways for water spiders, pond-skaters, eels,
Constable skies on a flat horizon,
the way each sunrise flares at the lip
and bursts out into day.

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Neil Leadbeater
Poet & Author

Neil is an author, essayist, poet and critic living in Edinburgh, Scotland. His work has been published widely both at home and abroad. His latest collection (co-authored with Monica Manolachi) is 'Journeys in Europe' (Editura Bifrost, Bucharest, Romania, 2022). 

Photography by Jakub Pabis