[This poem was first published in the Autumn 2021 issue of The Cultivating Project] It was our birthright, Breathed upon a garden’s dappled glade, Sung forth from soil, soft-cupped in ageless hands, To be tended, and in our turn to tend, By day’s great light to till the budding land, Then walk as friends by …
Through undulating borderlands Beneath the shadow of the dyke, Borrowed water slowly slips Cradled soft in clodding clay; Past Tenbury Wells Ludlow, Leominster; Deep in benign backwaters, Recirculating sedimentary flow of Quiet, unhurried Teme. A seeping vein, sunk Low in storied earth, Snaking slow and sinuous, A rising sap to bless the Fruitful burdened boughs, Silent stands …
Oh how we mocked! Cretins of a bygone age Who, in antique delirium Dreamt the mighty sun Might stoop to circle earth Yet, since Galileo raged Enlightened hubris Girds still greater fantasies The axis now transects the will The cosmos orbits every man
Never over, never underdone The algorithms guarantee These biscuits Weightless in their helium balloon Embalmed for immortality Traversing myriad belts That blindly flick and fuss The only touch A gleaming anodised caress Where nothing rots nor rusts Beneath a blue fluorescent blaze Beneath a hairnet-hooded gaze A nameless batch Poked by latex digits Precision honed …