Poet-in-residence
Cecilia Knapp was our first ever poet-in-residence, celebrating our five iconic bridges, our deep history, our role as a major funder, and the work of the many organisations we support
What we can learn from the bridge
A poem for London Bridge by Cecilia Knapp, City Bridge Foundation’s poet-in-residence
What we can learn from the bridge
London Bridge is one of the five bridges we care for, and London’s first river crossing. Its story stretching back almost 2,000 years to the earliest days of the city.
Built, rebuilt and reimagined across centuries, it has shifted from timber to stone to concrete, shaped by fire, storm and change, yet always enduring.
This final poem and film mark the culmination of Cecilia Knapp’s residency with us. In this closing piece, London Bridge becomes a meditation on what we can learn from the act of building and rebuilding — how something can rise from nothing, falter, transform and return stronger; how small beginnings can grow into something that holds us all.
A bridge that has crossed water, oceans and centuries speaks to survival and reinvention — to the possibility of change, and the strength found in adapting, enduring and beginning again.
We hope this final work, and the series as a whole, has invited you to see our bridges, and our city, with renewed curiosity and connection.
Our thanks to The Poetry Society with whom we partnered on this project.
Filming by Alexander Nicolaou.
Read the poem
What We Can Learn from the Bridge
What We Can Learn from the Bridge
and if something can be built
where there was once nothing
and if we can walk across water
where it used to seem impossible
and if a bridge can collapse
again and again, timber softening
like clay into the river
and if a bridge can come back
transformed into stone
withstand the lick of fire, storm
transform again, only to sink
and if a penny toll can grow
into millions, if something
good can start this small
and if a bridge can be shipped
brick by brick across oceans
to live in the looping desert heat
and if a bridge can rise again
and if a bridge can adapt
and if a thing can change
and if a thing can survive
can be reborn concrete
strong enough to hold us—
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