Sharing the Plates with a Picnic and Langled & Galing

23 June 2022

Sharing the plates with a picnic, and Langled and Galing

From souvenirs to sandwiches and sausage rolls. Kate and Dean led the residents in a jolly session of Picnic Plate Poetry—until Dean put his foot in it.

The second letter chosen by the artists was written by Gordon Hart, and detailed an heroic lifeboat rescue in December 1919.

Whilst at Suffolk Archives, some of the children had the chance to research the story, and found photographs and press cuttings about the crew and the rescue.

There was also earlier archive material, showing the cork lifejackets the crew used to wear.

Roman Hill at Suffolk Archives

The children all agreed that they had discovered a lot, not least two new words; ‘langled’ and ‘galing’.

Being a man who likes a new word, Dean instantly used them to create this poem, to recount the adventures of Roman Hill at Suffolk Archives.

Langled & Galing

Time travelling
snow snowing
gale galing – we’ll do it!
Langled, lashed to the mast
and a house built on a sandpit
or sandfish or sandwich.
Basking shark and blancmange
on a shopping list, handwritten recipe
for pickling white herring.
The red jersey with No.11
for Georgie Best, a saluki dog show
and Southwold to Lowestoft buses
hourly on Saturdays.
Being on a smack in the sea
in the wind, in the snow
in the night, is like being
in a wheelie bin in the rain
on a road, down a hill
in Storm Eunice.
Nine miles of books
Twenty million documents
and one pair of baggy
frozen solid trousers.