Being British
I am British,but what does that mean?Where did I come from; and...who am I? Let's start with the map of my blood-line - just after the earth thawed.This changed many shorelines under; many tides.I came walking over the now lost expanse of 'Doggerland',blue-eyed and dark-skinned.I carried flint in my hand. Moving like a slow wave from the warmer Eastern climes,I am now the farmers.I carry with me the secret of the seed I am the heavy stone to turn the soil of my chalky downlands. I built circles to worship the sunI added a sprinkle of knowledge brought by the Beaker people,their use of copper and their 'Eurasian' songs which were sung.Together we rewrote the genetic code of the whole of my island - and all in just a few hundred years!I was a genetic flood a tide that never really turned. I built my story in many layers. I am 'Celtic' with added iron-age. I am 'Celtic' innovation and agriculture - but I am also Roman. My dead straight roads brought the world to my gate as well as my soldiers from the Rhine. I became merchants from the 'Atlas Mountains'.I am 'Angles', 'Saxons' and 'Jutes'carving my names into the very soil on which you stand.Names featuring 'Ham', 'Ton', and 'Ley'turning my island into a patchwork quilt of kingdomsbefore came the dragon-ships ...and I became Viking! I planted the Norse roots in me, into the cold northern soil. Hear the many vowels which can still be heard on my tongue.Later I am Norman. I became a builder of stone towers and I took their Latin word changing my tongue ...but not my heart and that tide; also never turned! So who am I, what does 'British' mean?I am as British is the Huguenot weaver.I am the fleeing Jewrunning from persecution - and who is still running.I am the 'Windrush' generation.Hopeful souls who came on ocean liners from the colonies - to build a better life.I am the doctor from Punjab, the sailor from Canton.I am a small part of everything they brought. I am a trillion drops of rain that became an ocean.I belong to nowhere - because I come from everywhere.I am the strong "island nation".I am the "genetic mosaic" which covers this islands floor.I have been made over thousands of yearsI am migration of all kinds - the result of immigrants and that is what I feelthat is what I mean by... being British Click the link to hear me read the piecehttps://youtu.be/Hdf_Uh4axhg?si=uPTnPLcGnDe4RTcS