Mixed Borders

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Mike Sims Garden: Winchmore Hill Friends Meeting House and Burial Ground I wanted to be resident poet in the garden at the Friends Meeting House, Winchmore Hill, because I’ve visited one or two other Meeting Houses and liked them. I reckoned I was interested in the Quakers. I also liked, from what I read and saw online, the domestic, unshowy quality of the garden with its small, modest headstones set into the rolling lawn, and some towering, centuries-old trees. I arrived early for my visit on a bright, hot Sunday morning, having caught the overground train from Finsbury Park – I always enjoy a writing project that begins with a train journey. (Tsk – all this unnecessary detail!) Sitting in the garden that morning and, subsequently, joining that morning’s Meeting – wondering what to focus on, why my back was hurting and why I wasn’t having more profound thoughts (and could anyone tell) – was, though I didn’t realise it at the time, all the inspiration I needed. Being alone with my thoughts was both restorative and a riddle. Bob Newsom, my terrific ‘link man’, provided me with lots of reading material about the history of the Meeting House in Winchmore Hill and about Quakerism generally. I became fascinated by the suggestion in Quakerism that the spirit, powerfully moved, is more important than any sacred text. In the introduction to Advice and Queries, the Quakers’ introduction to their faith, I read: “the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth 50
life” (Corinthians 3:6). In one way, this suggested I chosen an unpromising place to be concocting with words. But what words ever truly say is something that interests me very much currently so, in another, it was exactly the right place for me to be. 51
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Page 3 and 4: Mixed Borders Poems from the London
Page 5 and 6: ? Introduction - 7 Ann Perrin - 11
Page 7 and 8: ! HOW DID OUR GARDEN GROW? You plan
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Page 11 and 12: Ann Perrin Garden: Postman’s Park
Page 13 and 14: The handkerchief tree I sit under t
Page 15 and 16: Some read their poems there and the
Page 17 and 18: Pop-up garden in Canning Town For L
Page 19 and 20: Clarissa Aykroyd Garden: Red Cross
Page 21 and 22: Ellen Cranitch Garden: Christchurch
Page 23 and 24: The Acer and the Agapanthus The Ace
Page 25 and 26: Hilaire Garden: Morden Hall Park My
Page 27 and 28: Garden Swap Shop Who’ll swap comm
Page 29 and 30: Ian McEwen Garden: Arlington Square
Page 31 and 32: The Symmetry Breakfast Song Bilater
Page 33 and 34: John Grant Garden: Osterley House G
Page 35 and 36: Garden Poems A garden enclosed is m
Page 37 and 38: Julia Bird Garden: Nomura Internati
Page 39 and 40: A GUIDE TO THE ELEMENTS 1. Water Th
Page 41 and 42: on the wharves across the river, th
Page 43 and 44: three: the birds of prey in charge
Page 45 and 46: Mary Dickins Garden: St Mary’s Se
Page 47 and 48: What it takes? It took struggle and
Page 49: Chilli Pepper Rap We’re red hot c
Page 53 and 54: Natalie Shaw Garden: Fenton House G
Page 55 and 56: Penny Hope Garden: Red House Garden
Page 57 and 58: Trellis Honeysuckle weaves itself i
Page 59 and 60: The neighbour's cat, nameless intru
Page 61 and 62: Roomates (at Bunhill Fields) Sure,
Page 63 and 64: Sara Benaim Garden: The Olden Commu
Page 65 and 66: Turn a silver key in a green door i
Page 67 and 68: kind. Streams of visitors poured th
Page 69 and 70: Perennial Cornflours in the Barbica
Page 71 and 72: She is the nest’s thought weaving
Page 73 and 74: with red-rimmed eyes, full of hints
Page 75 and 76: Churchyard Birds For centuries, roo
Page 77 and 78: William Henry Barrett Garden: Eastb
Page 79 and 80: Galencials 79
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Mixed Borders

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