Exceat
“Exceat”
dusk pencils in
the gradual dusk
a light shines
from Exceat
Exceat isn’t there
hasn’t been
the past 600 years
unbarqued the river
that has to be swum
and not just looked at
where everyone drowns
found floating close
by its mouth
the lamp is raised-
shipwreck is due
-supposed to be soul
Oxford
29 September 2010
The extinct village of Exceat, East Sussex, in the Cuckmere Valley, survives as a farmhouse and grange and as a persistent toponym. The Black Death and French raids in the Hundred Years War destroyed it.