At this year’s Wordstock, 50 poets, writers, and creatives, all passionate about words, gathered at Conway Hall Library in Bloomsbury. As well as hosting interviews, readings, and project launches, we celebrated the end of the 26 Bridges project by taking a moment to experience an imagined journey across the 27th Bridge over the Thames – the never-realised garden bridge.
Designed by Thomas Heatherwick and championed by Joanna Lumley and then-mayor Boris Johnson (among others), the bridge would have crossed the river from Temple tube station on the north bank to Queen’s Walk on the South Bank, between Waterloo and Blackfriars Bridges. After a 5-minute immersion, including city and garden scents from perfumer Sarah McCartney and a soundscape, participants were given cards, with an image of Joni Brown and her artistic response to the bridge, and asked to write 27 words – a 26-word poem, with an additional 27th word that in some way captures an essence of the journey…
After
you,
please,
I’m happy here
waiting for a friend.
Blackbird, bergamot,
spiced sparrows,
starlings
calling,
enchanted.
Simply being.
Being simply
among others
who share
the path.
– Rob Self-Pierson
