Love Lane Allotments have now been the inspiration for the work of two creatives with close links to Rye. The well-loved site was originally the subject of Lenka Medlik’s painting Spring Allotments, Rye. This piece was selected from over 1,000 entries for the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours exhibition 2017, and exhibited at London’s prestigious Mall Galleries.
Lenka’s work was seen and admired by Kent poet Alun Robert who went on to produce Springtime At Love Lane Allotment, an exuberant ekphrastic celebration of the site. Ekphrastic poetry is verse inspired by art, which seeks to narrate or to interpret the artwork through poetry and Alun’s poem is brimming with descriptions that will resonate with any allotment gardener. Alun’s poem has just been featured on the well-respected website The Poetry Village. His work has been published widely in literary magazines and anthologies in Britain, Northern Ireland and America.
The pair met at a writers’ workshop organised by the Friends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve and facilitated by award-winning poet Jane Lovell. So successful have these monthly sessions been that the group are collaborating with local painters, printmakers and photographers to produce a book in celebration of the 50th anniversary on the nature reserve. Fifty Ways of Looking at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve will be published in September of this year and will feature a selection of artwork and creative writing inspired by the reserve.
Springtime At Love Lane Allotment
By Alun Robert
Higgledy-pigglety
allotment over-loved
verdants through ochres
weeds across paths
deciduous uncoppiced
leaves deep in dank borders
blossom with fragrance
fresh buds screaming spring
above last year’s residue
over-ripe, unpicked
flight of the honey bee, swallows
everything in sight, on site
a legacy of last legumes
of broad beans, haricots
of cabbage and caulie
sprouting from the warmth
arriving in late spring
blistering sheds unpreserved
tales flailing through doors
unhinged by those ancients
supping leaf builders
from oddments of porcelain
two sugars, full-fat milk
a tradition out there
with natter, much chatter
community gardening
mankind at peace
with nature en frolic
two miles from the sea
two light years from traffic chaos
of downtown Rye roads
higgledy-pigglety.
Image Credits: John Minter , S Morgan .