Slowly .... and quickly the canoes pass -

up... and down stream on the Wear in front.

Cyclists and joggers and walkers ...

and romantics wander along beside.

Over Prebends and under fly the birds

I wish I could name.

Much changes in the world but the Wear is the same.

I think of my first river - the Tees -

and all the parts I have known in all the years of my life.

How it grows wider near the mouth

and weaker near the bypass.

Wilder inland and tamed by the docks.

Blessed am I to have felt its waters on my face.

For now comes a time Teesside is not so clean a place.

Much changes in the world, and the Tees is not the same.

The rivers of my life have ran free and unburdened.

Lowther, Esk, Wear,

Tees, Tyne and Thames.

But now they are controlled and I wonder if it hurts them.

Their reflective waters are not clear,