Poems

On 6th July 2011 Ed & Phil organised a special running event as part of the Ledbury Poetry Festival. Kathy Tytler, runner and poet, composed two sonnets with a running theme. These were separated into two line pieces and handed out to runners who then carried them on a run around one of the Poets Paths around the village of Dymock. The lines were collect in using the order that the runners finished (hence the project's name 'Running Order') and two new sonnets created with the mixed-up lines and read out in the local pub, the Beauchamp Arms.

The two new poems are reproduced below together with the originals beneath.

‘Running order’ Poem 1 – 6^th July 2011

Non runners look at us amazed

They say that we’re masochistic.

Why don’t you watch telly, join the permanently dazed?

I don’t think they’d want to risk it.

Then a cold icy wind or a hard rain will fall,

Lungs of sand and glass bones will break me,

As I labour with pain at the top of the hill,

Close to hell then my running will take me.

We train on track, we train on hills

To get our race PB.

We run cross country with many spills,

Endure aching limbs and runners knee

But when we achieve our runner’s high,

We experience the pleasure that no money can buy.

‘Running order’ Poem 2 - July 6^th 2011

When my feet cross the ground with hardly a touch,

And my breath comes so free and so even,

And I travel so swift, but I’m not in a rush,

That’s when running feels like I’m in heaven.

In search of the elusive runner’s high

We run in morning fog,

In pouring rain, under leaden sky

Where once green field becomes a bog.

When the sun lights my way, but a cool breeze does blow,

When the path runs ahead firm and clear,

And the perfume on honeysuckle floats from the hedgerow,

Then I feel that perfection is near.

At the end of our run, whether pleasure or pain,

We all know we’ll be back here again and again.

A Sonnet for Runners