by
Charlotte Moreton
1st October 2020
Today is National Poetry Day!
We would love to hear your favourite verse, and when we are able to put touchable things out in the countryside of Cranborne Chase, we have Poetry Boxes for you to fill with your words inspired by our special Cranborne Chase landscapes and culturescapes. This is part of our Words in the Landscape project. Meanwhile, please do email us (charlottemoreton@cranbornechase.org) any poems or prose that you would like to share.
Here a very pertinent one we spotted on a website that seems anonymous. Often, and today again in the news, we hear debate about the raptors that sit at the top of our rural foodchain.
Morning Bus – poem
On a bus through Cranborne Chase
I’ve come to find a certain face
Occurs enough to earn a word
That of the buzzard, hunting bird
Perched upon a pole to scout
The fields beside the roundabout
At Sixpence Handley, in the cold
Back gilded by this frost morn’s gold
His eyes affixed to ground for hints
Of morsels tucked between the flints
Splashed grass shoots and island shards
On milk tea seas in frozen charge
With hook on head, tapered, tearing
Brown gloss orbs that scroll for paring
Fluff and feathers dancing wild
From mottled soil on which they’re styled
Suppose it’s nice to have a view
A field of vision sans a yew
Or birch, or ash, or palms-spread alder
No crooked creeks or moss-strewn boulders
“So what if it’s unfair?” says he
“A sharp-billed bird has got to eat
As much as any beast of wing
Or paw, or foot, or chair sitting”
“Besides,” he says, as day turns bright
“The farmer wants their heads on pikes
The rabbits take from your plate too
So give me peace to take my food”
Looking at the words-painting combination we have Hugh Dunford Wood’s wonderful How to Paint a Ditch, published on Little Toller’s newsletter, The Clearing. Inspiration indeed for sketching walks – more of that in a further post.
Over to you…!