Greening The Ground Poem by G. Newton V. Chance

Hail the man who tills the soil,
from thorn and thistle extracts oil
of copra, soya, olive and corn,
labouring at the leprechaun
of plenitude to fill the horn
With fruits and flora of his toil.

Praise the woman at his side
whose earth is deep, whose hips are wide
and from the vine extracts the wine,
the sugar and the salt divine
to pour and sprinkle on the shrine

Of lust for life and love and feast
to calm and tame and sate the beast,
the hunger that consumes the world;
the sacrifice of green for gold
myopic greed with vision blurred.

Hail the man who sows the seed
and from the soil fulfils the need,
with faith and hope for sun and rain,
to fill the farrowed earth with grain,
greening the ground where brown had lain;
Indeed, he is a special breed.