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Chalk
& Channel Way
Foldout
leaflet of the cycle route between Dover and Folkestone. Includes
information on Tim Clapcott's sculpture 'Coccoliths' near Folkestone,
and Ros Barber's 10 poems about particular locations along the route.
Extract:
'The Chalk
and Channel Way links the harbours of Dover and Folkestone via the
famous White Cliffs, looking out over the English Channel to France.
This is also National Cycle Route 2, part of the National Cycle Network
and travels through
areas of historical significance and great natural beauty.'
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'As the first part of a
larger programme to involve artists on the route, the sculptor Tim
Clapcott and poet Ros Barber were commissioned to make works especially
for the Chalk and Channel Way.
Ros
Barber:
Cliff Top
Cafe (Poem 3)
"The process of erosion was never far
from my mind as I explored the cliff-top. The metaphorical significance
gradually got the better of my sense of humour until the poem dwindled
into some gloomy musings of the futility of it all.
"Here, the cliff top cafe has succumbed
to
being munched itself. The gravity
of its exposed position has listed the
list
of 'teacake, crumpet, butter extra' (crumbs)
and its concrete
anguish hovers in between
ideas of things that do and don't exist.
"It's
life and death now on the seaward terrace
where formerly tea and coffee
were the thing,
and choice of ice cream pales against the bleak
yes/no of whether where we might sit will perish.
There's a crack all the way
round. The shell is split,
an oyster prized apart by winter's beak.
"It's
rain that unglues this place: saliva-thick
it unstitches the turf,
bloats earth, and wears out rock
until rock is done with holding the
whole world up
and drops. The shapes of things reverse. One lick
from
the sea and we'll forget what this was. What?
A piece of wall. The bone
of an animal. Dust."
By kind permission of
Ros
Barber
Information
courtesy of several organisations including Dover District Council Council.
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