Hannah May Harding: Finder

Positioning them in the wet sand,
and almost in reach of the tide,
half buried
a “used universe” was realised.

The impression it makes,
looking for stones everyday things
or the feeling of being
the observation of one taken from remains
she ‘can’t resist’
invented a process
an “alternative past”

what was unfolding

Once the eye is sensitised to
those so often overlooked
we see the breaking point, where all
our meaningful concepts, such as me, you, woman,
man, love and hate, will be stripped of their meaning

They help us reveal 
a sense of history 
of prophesy and space, so to speak,
giving an effect of movement through a place
albeit a much quieter one.

The minute details 
house so full
in London in round fragment
She remembered as though she has
merged with the shoreline and 
shaggy with seaweed. 
she was nothing of not precise 

Maybe we’re nearing
other kinds of truth
in London in our imaginations – 
time-honoured ways to
become part of the landscape itself.

Hannah May Harding

Hannah is a poet and visual artist based in South London. She combines experimental poetic practice, digital illustration and collecting to create ecologically driven work. Often wellie-booted and clay speckled, she loves searching the Thames foreshore to collect hidden stories, rubbish from centuries past, and chance encounters with fellow rag and bone people. Hannah graduated from the Royal Holloway University Creative Writing Masters on the Poetic Practice pathway with a Distinction in 2022, and has since been featured in the Copeland Gallery, BUB Magazine and Pertinent Actions anthology.

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