Registering the organic smallholding known as Parkhead Farm
A steep place. Thirty acres divide the wind,
the cloud-race splitting round Maidenpap
to lour across Solway mud. A land rusting
under pines. Winter-salted light roughens shadows,
picks out iron in the rocks, orchid in the swamp.
A land glimpsing, changing under cloud rim
and sudden shower. A nest of streams
flying at night from the winded stars.
Dry dikes mark out the farms,
gate-rayed, gorsed-in, jigsaw-locked.
Currency’s the swing of muscle and boot grip,
the tackling idea, deft touch and handy spare.
The lights of ten-mile-neighbours lay a trace
across bogfoot and glen. Ice strips a carcass
in the burn: small deer tremble and slip
into wet woodland, rousing lurchers to riot.
No land wastes: Tamworth Reds root out bracken
cleaner than the plough; they blaze in fields,
hide-banging man-humoured enormous bearers.
A subtle coloured Shetland flock defies dogs
and sense, havocs vets bills. Ten geese march
the fields, routing riff-raff ducks, layabout hens.
Living close to the human house milking goats
speak sweetly, love and quarrel, fuss about food.
Smallholding's a civil world of trial.
Outdoors, mud and scarecrow hours:
indoors, books, music, cookery, computers.
This is working town blood up on its feet,
outfacing centuries, making honey, veg,
milk, eggs, cheese, lamb, chicken, wool,
working the land to a rough sufficiency,
trim as the estuary to the slim stalking bird.
the cloud-race splitting round Maidenpap
to lour across Solway mud. A land rusting
under pines. Winter-salted light roughens shadows,
picks out iron in the rocks, orchid in the swamp.
A land glimpsing, changing under cloud rim
and sudden shower. A nest of streams
flying at night from the winded stars.
Dry dikes mark out the farms,
gate-rayed, gorsed-in, jigsaw-locked.
Currency’s the swing of muscle and boot grip,
the tackling idea, deft touch and handy spare.
The lights of ten-mile-neighbours lay a trace
across bogfoot and glen. Ice strips a carcass
in the burn: small deer tremble and slip
into wet woodland, rousing lurchers to riot.
No land wastes: Tamworth Reds root out bracken
cleaner than the plough; they blaze in fields,
hide-banging man-humoured enormous bearers.
A subtle coloured Shetland flock defies dogs
and sense, havocs vets bills. Ten geese march
the fields, routing riff-raff ducks, layabout hens.
Living close to the human house milking goats
speak sweetly, love and quarrel, fuss about food.
Smallholding's a civil world of trial.
Outdoors, mud and scarecrow hours:
indoors, books, music, cookery, computers.
This is working town blood up on its feet,
outfacing centuries, making honey, veg,
milk, eggs, cheese, lamb, chicken, wool,
working the land to a rough sufficiency,
trim as the estuary to the slim stalking bird.
Pamela Coren has had poems in the UEA's anthology
Reactions 4 and has won prizes and commendations in several competitions. Her first collection is forthcoming from Laurel Books.
Reactions 4 and has won prizes and commendations in several competitions. Her first collection is forthcoming from Laurel Books.
Page(s) 22-23
magazine list
- Features
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- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
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- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The