Category: poem

Empty

On hearing of the decline in the population of capercaillie in Britain…

 

If the capercaillie cannot caper,

the red deer rut or wild cat snarl,

if there’s no beaver’s beavering this way,

or howling wolves hunting in a pack,

if the weasel’s easily extinguished,

and the stoats are totally gone,

if red’s in their sanctuaries have been silenced

and moles no longer underground,

if hedgehogs cannot snaffle at their cafés

and pine martens no longer pine,

if water voles holes have been deserted

and seals no longer sing mourning songs,

when the patter of ptarmigan feet becomes a silent beat

and dormice slumber deep for evermore,

then we are done.

If there’s no life in the wild,

it’s all just empty.

Janet Lees, in Longdendale 30.09.2022

On Cancelling Christmas

In the style of Charles Causley…..

God in the big blue heaven

Looked on the watery waves,

Lapping around the islands

And said ‘So they think Jesus saves.

I’m putting my trust in Ronaldo,

Even Kane’s more likely to score.

I’ve decided to cancel Christmas,

And not be doing it anymore’.

Firstly, God started with carols

and came up with quite a list

of things not to sing in December,

even if you are pissed.

Some were all high notes and tricky,

like Hark the herald angels don’t sing;

Or shepherds don’t watch their flocks by night;

and more of that kind of thing.

Eventually it came down to the Bible,

‘The virgin shall not bear a son’

It hurt so to cross it out;

it was always God’s favourite one.

That moment in Magnificat splendour

when Mary, so full of grace,

says yes to God’s timeless promise

and all glory lights up her face.

God put down the chunky blue crayon

used to edit the text,

and refused to go any further:

‘They’ll want to cancel Easter next!’

Copyright Janet Lees: October 2021, on hearing a lot of fake news about cancelling Christmas, which will never ever happen.

Charles Causley, Cornish Poet, (1917-2003), was born in Launceston, which I visited on my End to End in April 2019.