Following on from Sue Cook’s @popsytops blog about landscape which I reblogged last week, I too have been on a walk, recently passing the 120 year old St Mary’s Allotments in Leamington Spa. It’s hard to convey the gentle energy in spaces like this, but here goes..
Nourishment, earth fed, where
robins, blackbirds, crows reside,
grows plentiful and rich
beside the banks and riverside
Where working man has striven
long, his brow a sweat of toil
as hands, like spades with aching back
worked hard the heavy soil
To feed, to grow his many
crops, returning home triumphant
as empty mouths and stomachs waited
for succour and for comfort.
Grass, long and green and succulent,
home too for mouse and insect
caresses now the empty pots
as blackbirds, thrush, with perfect
eye, lunge quick and sharp and
faultlessly, each jab around the hedging
another search for sustenance
to feed the growing fledgling.
Autumn apples drop to feed the
dormant springtime flowers,
the earth and all its worms and creatures,
made damp with summer showers.
Make way for compost, de-generation
as winter rests the ground
and sure as night will follow day
the earth will echo with the sound
of working men – and women now
who find a moment’s peace
within the lanes and grassy tracks
where troubles fail,
then
cease.
Jacci Gooding, Author 
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