NORFOLK COAST GUARDIAN 2021


ACT FOR NATURE 3 Prizing nature above all


Poet Matt Howard won a national prize for his first collection. Here we publish, for the first time, a poem specially written for the Norfolk Coast: and he explains what inspires him to write.


I


’ve lived in Norfolk all my life and its wonderful mix of landscapes, habitats and all their constituent species inevitably seeds so many


of my poems. To live close to places such as the Norfolk Coast area of outstand- ing natural beauty is a real privilege – proximity to such wild openness is part of why I try to write. Taking just this coastline, there is


such diversity of more-than-human life, resident or moving through saltmarsh, reedbed, freshwater lagoons, chalk grass- land, sand dunes and beaches, etc. And though I actually live in Norwich, I like to think that there’s always some part of my mind trying to hunker in a reedbed. It was a complete and wonderful sur-


prise to be awarded Best First Collection for my book Gall, in last year’s inaugural Laurel Prize. The prize was established by our Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, to celebrate the best collections of nature or environmental poetry, all to highlight the climate crisis and raise awareness of the challenges and potential solu- tions at this critical point in our planet’s life. Moniza Alvi and Robert Macfarlane joined Simon Armitage as judges for the prize.


Writing poems is always slow work and the path to getting a first book out takes years, with many detours along the way. To have such recognition from three writers I hugely admire is a prize enough in itself. Yet in addition to that came the opportunity of a commission from one of the prize’s partners, Landscapes for Life, to write a poem that engages with one of our areas of outstanding natural beauty. I’m delighted to share the poem that came from that here.


Aside from the personal recognition, it is particularly heartening that Simon Armitage has founded this prize now as it wonderfully adds to a rapidly growing awareness of just how much nature, all of the more-than-human world means to us. It strikes me that for far too long our species has lived as if we have some- how imagined ourselves to be outside of nature. For the past decade I have worked for the RSPB in various roles, none of which are directly engaged with the boots-on-the-ground aspect of con- servation. Instead the best way I can describe a lot of my work is to say that it is exploring ways to engage and inspire people, to ‘work’ the habitats of hearts and minds. It is inevitable that impulse flows into my writing. 2021 is such a vital year for nature and therefore, for all of us. As well as new


NORTHERLY


Look, a pink-foot’s feather – spinning there, maybe a wing covert, adrift, out in the open somehow in the wind’s own parish -


its little gravity with the first of the light, even on a dawn like this and through these gusts of rain. Though the sun’s just arcing through and now the tide’s coming in,


a goose tide, a creaked weight of yaps, awake and rending, lifting themselves into the many, now fraying up, to stream inland


off the Wash. Their long-pull ordinance over things sunken in wintering: mudflats, creeks, glasswort, sea rush, thrift,


sea lavender and then the strand line, past the beach and the other few early walkers and where you are, with each step, you and again you


but brighter there, off the path, reaching up the gorse bank for the snagged feather, more grounded now among the beautiful.


UK legislation there are two massively important United Nations conferences that will set the path for global action to tackle the nature and climate crises, though these crises are one and the same thing. With every study or report that is released it becomes ever clearer and more urgent that we must act now to meet these crises and set a course for nature’s, the planet’s and our own recov- ery. Despite what can seem so complex, the simplicity is that these really aren’t interchangeable. For the sake of future generations we cannot allow ourselves to fail. And once each of us makes a start in whatever way we can, just by looking at the ways we individually live our lives, our consumer choices, how we travel and work, how we engage with our communi- ties and the political debate and process etc, all of it makes a difference that adds to a greater whole. Despite all the lockdowns and chal- lenges of this most difficult pandemic, I think this has never been clearer or


THE LAUREL PRIZE


The Laurel Prize was established by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage in 2020 to recognise and encourage the resurgence of nature and environmental writing currently taking place in poetry. He said: ‘We are facing the most catastrophic threat to the future of our planet that we have ever encountered. I have established The Laurel Prize as an annual award for the best collection of nature or environmental poetry to highlight the climate crisis and raise awareness of the challenges and potential solutions at this critical point in our planet’s life.’ The poet, who is donating his annual laureateship honorarium towards the prize money,


has a strong association with areas of outstanding natural beauty, which have come together across England and Wales as a sponsor of the awards. Having won special commendation in the 2020 awards for his collection Gall, Matt


Howard chose the Norfolk Coast area of outstanding natural beauty to write about as part of his prize, in his poem Northerly, published here for the first time. Laurelprize.com


more urgent. Nor, given the huge changes we’re all living through since last year has it been more possible to build such a necessarily ambitious recovery together. In a small way I guess I was think- ing about all of that in the back of my mind whilst I was working on ‘North- erly’. All it is ultimately thinking about is the ‘globally local’ with the wintering of pink-footed geese, what we take for granted and then the simple act of not- ing the things, people and places that it is such a privilege to know and love.


Matt Howard is a poet and also works as Cultural Campaigner for the RSPB. Gall by Matt Howard is a 68-page collection of poems,


ISBN 978-1-909632-08-0 available for £10 by mail order from therialto.co.uk


Shingle bank Salthouse to Cley. David Tipling Mission critical


The Norfolk Coast is a haven for nature, with species using it as a breeding ground, stopping off point and refuge. This newspaper is bought to you by the Norfolk Coast


Partnership, which works with people and organisations in the area, to look after the Norfolk Coast area of outstanding natural beauty. This national landscape’s amazingly diverse 453 sq km includes a wealth of habitats – from saltmarsh to downs, from woodlands to heath and bog – which supports an astonishing range of species. The partnership is


working hard to increase the resilience and reach of our nature – and to make sure that people from all walks of life have the opportunity understand and enjoy it. It’s ever more critical that areas like the Norfolk Coast


are protected and link up with other such places – as well as urban and other kinds of landscapes. This is because in the last ten years, the world has failed to meet a single target to stem the destruction of wildlife and life-sustaining systems. Protected landscapes like areas of outstanding natural beauty and national parks are one chink of light – globally, more of them have been designated. But its important that they join with other areas to create networks for nature. This edition of the Norfolk Coast Guardian focuses on


diversity of people and nature. With facts, poems, stories, art and more we look at how we are part of the natural world and what we can do as a species to turn back from the loss of our vital, rich, natural world.


NOW OR NEVER FOR NATURE


One quarter of species are threatened with extinction. One million species are at risk. Wild animal populations have


fallen by two thirds since 1970. (UN Convention on Biological Diversity, 2020.)


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