ESSEX BORDERS
by Martin Swanzy
This is a gentle landscape
Of green smiling fields
Isolated villages
Linked by winding lanes
Years of labour have
Cleared the Saxon woodland
Ploughed ancient fields
Created medieval greens
Raised fine churches
With stone and flint walls
Whose soaring towers
Search still peaceful skies
Timber framed buildings
Built from local oakwood
By master craftsmen
Lasting for centuries
Here the flatlands of Essex
Meet the river valleys
And rolling chalk hills
Of Hertfordshire
In this small pocket
Of rural England
The threads of history
Are interwoven
And here the colours
Are still bright
And the country air
Is still clean
We hope and pray
It stays like this
For the sake of everyone
Past, present and future
