‘The Kingfisher’ by Portsmouth poet, Pauline Hawkesworth is in some ways a companion to her verse, ‘The Heron’, which can also be found not far away on this map. Like that poem, it captures a brief but vivid moment, describing the nearly-missed encounter with the beautiful bird and the (mostly natural) backdrop in which the scene takes place. The image of traffic stagnating is both weird and appropriate given the location, the Creek that the poet clearly adores. ‘The Kingfisher’ was published in the wonderful collection, This Island City: Portsmouth in Poetry(2010), and is included here with the kind permission of the poet.

’The Kingfisher’

Not looking far enough ahead –
too concerned with keeping on my feet,
from stumbling on the rubbled
towpath and falling into the creek,
I almost missed the kingfisher:
just saw a tiny speck of light
leaving the safety of the hawthorn;
short, snappy notes alerting my eyes.

Now I’m looking out over the water
towards the motorway
and just where evening traffic
stagnates, blue diamond wings
rapidly beat the air,
tracing an erratic flight-path,
slipping under the railway bridge
towards the estuary.

Pauline Hawkesworth (b. 1943) was born in Portsmouth and lived with her parents and sister Marian in the corner shop of her grandmother in Laburnum Grove (where another Portsmouth author, Olivia Manning, also lived). The family moved to the suburb of Drayton in 1954. She left school at fifteen and worked as a telephonist for estate agents Young and White. She joined the WRNR and was stationed in the underground complex at Fort Southwick. Pauline married architect Rex Hawkesworth in 1961 and has two daughters Ruth and Lee.

Her first book, Dust and Dew (1969) was published by Mitre Press and reached universities both in the UK and USA. A short film about it was made by BBC South at the time. Her first published poem was in Script in 1971. Pauline has three further collections, from open competitions. These are Developing Green Films (1998, from the Redbeck Competition, judges Geoffrey Holloway and Patricia Pogson); Bracken Women in Lime Trees (2009), one of three winners for publication in book form by Indigo Dreams; and Life-Savers on All Sides (2017) Her poems are of place and the natural world, they inhabit the ‘twilight zone’, ‘a world beyond our senses’, and ‘transfigure the ordinary’. She has won and been placed in many competitions and has poems in many anthologies, her favourite being The Spirit of Wilfred Owen (2002). Hawkesworth also produced a booklet of poems entitled Marshland Ballad. In 2021, she won the Southport Writers’ Circle Open Poetry Competition. Pauline is President of Portsmouth Poetry Society.

Pauline broke the Portsmouth Schools 100 yards record as a junior, and was an active member of Portsmouth Atalanta Athletic Club. She was a Coach, Track and Field Judge, and administrator for many years. With her husband Rex, as lead coach, their athletes won over thirty Hampshire County titles, and two girls represented England at 400m. They have coached for over fifty years.

Pauline is secretary to Rex and his architectural practice, a member of St. Francis Church, has an allotment, and is extremely fond of dogs.

If you have any comments, queries, or suggestions about any of the map entries, please contact the Map Director, Mark Frost: mark.frost@port.ac.uk