"Eurydice" - Sue Hubbard

Located on the wall of the Waterloo underpass, this poem was painted along the walkway as a way for pedestrians to feel safe while they crossed underneath the street. It uses the analogy of Eurydice descending into the Underworld as a way to remind us that though we often fall into these pits of seemingly unending despair, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. There are always stairs that lead to something higher, something better than where we are right now. The underpass itself is a brightly lit area in an otherwise grey part of London. There's a certain melancholiness to the poem; it reminds me that there are moments when life is beautiful and there are moments when life is sad.

Read more about the Underpass project here.

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"Eurydice" by Sue Hubbard

I am not afraid as I descend,
step by step, leaving behind the salt wind
blowing up the corrugated river,

the damp city streets, their sodium glare
of rush-hour headlights pitted with pearls of rain;
for my eyes still reflect the half remembered moon.

already your face recedes beneath the station clock,
a damp smudge among the shadows
mirrored in the train’s wet glass,

will you forget me? Steel tracks lead you out
past cranes and crematoria,
boat yards and bike sheds, ruby shards

of roman glass and wolf-bone mummified in mud,
the rows of curtained windows like eyelids
heavy with sleep, to the city’s green edge.

Now I stop my ears with wax, hold fast
the memory of the song you once whispered in my ear.
Its echoes tangle like briars in my thick hair.

You turned to look.
Second fly past like birds.
My hands grow cold. I am ice and cloud.

This path unravels.
Deep in hidden rooms filled with dust
and sour night-breath the lost city is sleeping.

Above the hurt sky is weeping,
soaked nightingales have ceased to sing.
Dusk has come early. I am drowning in blue.

I dream of a green garden
where the sun feathers my face
like your once eager kiss.

Soon, soon I will climb
from this blackened earth
into the diffident light.