Today is National Poetry Day. You may not know that Fortune Green has an official poet. Ted Booth is the artist in residence for 2013-14, and has already written a couple of poems, which you can read here, including one about the film screening of Back to the Future.

Today’s poem is inspired by Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “water, water, everywhere” from The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. Given the forecast for this afternoon, it is apposite.

Water

	It  rains
	It  rains
Up  above  us  on  the  Heath
levels  in  the  ponds  rise  alarmingly
	It  rains
	It  rains
Under  The  Green  is  a  fleet  river
it  speeds  downhill
to  the  Fire  Station  and  Pizza  Express
	It  rains
	It  rains
The  water  pours
over  the  grass
along  the  paths
flooding  the  roads
pooling  into  unlucky  basements
ankle  deep  in  sodden  gardens
	It  rains
	It  rains
	It  rains
	It  pours
	Over the page
The  flag  stones  are  awash
at  the  mouth  of  The  Green
the  stone  fountain
after  weeks  of  temperance
drinks  its  fill
and  vomits,  startling
the  doused  pigeons  into  flight
	It  rains
	It  goes  on  raining
Water,  water,  everywhere.

About Ted Booth
Ted was born in 1938 and educated at the London School of Economics. He is a retired lecturer in creative writing at Middlesex University. A part time poet, Ted has published two volumes; Rough Draft (1998) and Fair Copy (2010) and is anthologised in Football: Pure Poetry, Vols. 1 and 2 alongside Seamus Heaney, Roger McGough and Adrian Mitchell. Ted has lived in West Hampstead for over twenty years.