Bridge: Wandsworth Bridge
Title: The Least Noteworthy Bridge in London
Writer: Margaret Kenna
Creative partners: Sophie Cheng, Rosie Cheng
The work: Item 1 – Black ink sketch, incorporating phrases from the poem, width 139.7, length 190.5 mm. Item 2 – short film, with poem as voiceover, depicting a day in the life of Wandsworth Bridge. Incorporating art work to give a sense of the Bridge’s golden soul
Description: Dark Angels centena (poem of exactly 100 words, first and last line the same) in which the soul of the bridge reflects on past glories and emotions triggered by its label “the least Noteworthy Bridge in London.”
THE LEAST NOTEWORTHY BRIDGE IN LONDON
Margaret Kenna
Once I was golden
suitable for strolling
gilded filigree railings
glittering in the sun
now brutalizing blue
wearied from wartime
I mourn
my original columns
barely visible
above the water
constricted
by the concrete
convenient for carrying
daily invasions
of tedious traffic
and Londoners
always on their way
to their lives
while twenty- six fellow bridges
compete for their attention
declaiming to the river
that runs through us
here I stand, notice me
I endure
endlessly reinvented
as required
by the society
I serve
my soul’s dreams flowing
from the Wandle to the Thames
remembering that
once I was golden