Cemetery at Lindisfarne (Trench 2) 

Jodie Hannis

The coroner has departed
drifted to the gift shop
and we are armed with crates, plastic bags
the ever-elusive sharpies

We’ve come down through the layers
but there is more to unpick
the criss-cross of what happens to a person
as they’re caught by the earth

We huddle round as the bones are lifted
heads down. I recognise the scene
a funeral in reverse

Know that soil is the body too
holding our softest parts
the boundaries of a life are confused at rest

Have you found the history of yourself
away from your children
here, with the painstaking scrape of soil away from bone

and have you managed to cast yourself
sideways, across what it feels like to be human
into the wind with the rattling seals
and howl of the sea birds

Have you felt the pressure of dirt
against your every soft limb
made yourself sensitive to each smallest change

to the place where people have sighed into the ground
their feet turned in
and a dashed hope of life in the muddle at her waist

Have you wanted to capture everything 
every beam of sun and sand-blasted squint
in your careful account of how you met them

on your knees
each record a prayer 
each drawing a spell

as the singing drifts from the church
bringing us apart and together again

The Science

This poem arose out of a series of particularly moving moments during an archaeological dig at Lindisfarne, Holy Island. I teach members of the public how to use the scientific methodology of excavation and this process is particularly rigorous when it comes to lifting human remains. The early medieval cemetery on site is full of men, women, and children, and often these encounters are moving and emotional and require something more than 'science' to process them. With this poem, I wanted to honour those moments and record something that speaks to the humanity of this discipline, as well as its science.

The Poet

Jodie Hannis is a Cumbria-based poet exploring writing on time, memory, and excavation as part of her PhD research with the University of Leicester. She is also a full-time archaeologist with DigVentures, an organisation specialising in public participation in heritage projects. In addition to digging holes, she’s interested in the boundaries between science and creative practice, and facilitates artistic workshops on archaeology sites. She has been published in Eye Flash Poetry, Lammergeier, and The Blue Nib, and recently made the longlist for the Aurora Prize for Writing 2021 and came runner up in the GS Fraser Poetry Prize.

Next poem: FFWAP by Clint Wastling