<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
the lost rivers of Wirral<\/strong><\/p>\n on the old map\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 thin spidery lines one is a dry fold in the landscape some empty into lakes <\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Bennett<\/strong> has written 74\u00a0 books and numerous chapbooks and pamphlets in a 48 year career as a poet.\u00a0 Jim lives near Liverpool in the UK and tours giving readings of his work throughout the year.\u00a0 He is widely published and has won many competitions and awards for poetry and performance. He runs\u00a0www.poetrykit.org\u00a0<\/a>one of the world\u2019s most successful internet sites for poets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" the lost rivers of Wirral on the old map\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 thin spidery lines mark rivers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 brooks\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 streams some still flow\u00a0\u00a0 hidden as they dip into culverts some have been built over one is\u00a0 a muddy ditch that sucks at boots their names unspoken or on loan\u00a0 to the roads in a housing estate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11556"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11558,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11556\/revisions\/11558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nmark rivers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 brooks\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 streams
\nsome still flow\u00a0\u00a0 hidden
\nas they dip into culverts
\nsome have been built over
\none is\u00a0 a muddy ditch
\nthat sucks at boots
\ntheir names unspoken
\nor on loan\u00a0 to the roads
\nin a housing estate<\/p>\n
\nanother traced by groves
\nacross a footpath
\nthey had names\u00a0 faint words
\nwritten on a map
\nArrowe\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Greasby\u00a0\u00a0 the Birket,
\nthe Dibbin and the Clatter
\nnew streams sleuth across land
\nfind their way onto old paths
\nor carve out new ones
\nuntil they meet a river<\/p>\n
\nor sea\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 some just drain
\nsoak away into fields
\nevaporate\u00a0 to clouds
\nsucked up or drunk
\nby animals or plants
\nwhile at the roadside
\na gutter carries a stream
\nto drain into a man-made river
\nthat has no name and never will<\/p>\n