the place where the water meets the land

Here’s a response to and exploration of the places and spaces and people of Strumpshaw Fen (RSPB nature reserve, Norfolk). Connecting my own words with the words from the shared discussions and conversations today.

A day thinking about the connections between climate change, nature and creativity, led by CreativeUEA.

I hope to find time for more visual explorations - watch out for some printmaking inspired by the biodiversity of this place - but at the end of today, this feels like something to share to start with.

For more information: https://www.uea.ac.uk/creative/exploring-climate-change-through-creativity

The place where the water meets the land

Rushing wind,

            Rushing train.

The trees and the sky and the sunlight,

framed and bound by bridges, ditches, rivers, old oak trees,

and tall armies of nettles. 

Ready to explore this gallery.

Is the gate inviting us in or blocking us out?

Who belongs here?

The sail glides along, disclosing the river’s presence.

Moving river.

Hiding river.

This is the glade, with its roped boundaries and wind-whispered secrets.

A defensible space.

What does it need defending from?

We stand in a circle.

Slowing down.

Healing.

What do we need healing from?

These are the patterns in the iridescent pond biofilm scum.

Shadows dance and reflections emerge,

Bubbles pop,

Leaves fall and float,

Creatures hide under the grey surface, waiting.

This is the place where the kingfisher perches.

The auditorium,

calling its actor and its audience.

Warblers hiding in the reedbed, watching, warning,

Reeds whispering their piece.

It is a secret show. Not everyone is invited.

This is the place to watch the river.

The passing by of water,

the passing by of time,

its ripples and lines and stillness and waves.

This is the place of tensions and contradictions.

Relationships that wax and wane,

the intersection of light and shade,

the fault-lines that drive the secret stories of this place.

            Stillness and surprise

            Agency and uncertainty

Feeling comfortably lost.   

Black silhouette, swooping by. Grey heron.

This is the place of human activity and care.

Managing fragmented populations,

re-instating and creating,

            relocating and dispersing,

saving ‘climate refugees’,

conservation-mowing,

controlling trees,

ditch-dredging,

counting the swallowtail’s horned larvae,

counting the breeding mallards,

counting the chocolate-brown fen raft spider nurseries.

The marsh harriers returned in 1982.

The cranes arrived in 2023.

This is the place where the water meets the land.