English Poems From Green Man Rising Poem by Sheena Blackhall

Things my mother knew

How to turn a shirt collar, and darn a sock
How to freeze a room with one arched eyebrow
How to take notes in shorthand
How to turn the key on freedoms
How to oil age lines away with oil of Ulay
How to play mandolin, zither, piano
How to not put a foot wrong
How to recite Sir Walter Scott while washing the dishes
How to quote from the Bible, especially the Old Testament
How to meet death only when she was ready
How to swish her full mink coat like Greta Garbo
How to button me tightly into my liberty bodice

Things my father knew

How to sing like John McCormack, a human nightingale
How to find the loneliest brae beside Loch Builig
How to devour the Reader's Digest like a shark
How to delight small children, a Scots Pied piper
How to heal life's ills with highland mountain air
How to stand in ancient footsteps to savour history
How to let me off the leash, barefoot, over the moor
How to be punctual as a clock

Things my granny knew

How to kneel in prayer, take off a goodnight dram
How to peel potatoes, soothe distress
How to throw salt into the Devil's eye
How to laugh, tell rhymes and story tell
How to wash my face in the Beltane dew

Things my brother knew

How to polish off a crate of Bicardi
How to perform Beethoven, Bartok, Chopin, Bach
How to shape-change from a musician to a Brazilian businessman
How to adopt new language, music, culture
How to chase pots of gold beyond the rainbow



The Climate is a Changing:
based on The Times they are a changing (Bob Dylan)

Come writers and critics who work with the pen
And keep your eyes wide the chance won't come again
You can't speak too soon for the wheel's now in spin
For an eco-pure land let's be strivin'.
For we're all losers now, and there's no one will win
For the climate is a-changin'.

Come presidents, media men please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside needs engaging.
It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the climate is a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers throughout all the land
And you can still help for you all understand
With your sons and your daughters, go clean up the strand
The wounds of the world are wide ranging
Please strive for the future and all lend a hand
For the climate is a-changin'.

The line it has shifted, the curse it is cast
Where poles melted slow, now they tumble down fast
We still have a present, we all have a past
The chance of a futureis fadin.
How long can our poisoned seas prosper and last
When the climate is a-changin'?

Tornadoes and monsoons tear cities apart
Tsunamis and earthquakes they strike at the heart
Of continents, is it too late now to start
Deleting pollution's contagion?
You'd better be ready, neither bomb, knife or dart
Will stop our world's climate a changin


Cherry Ripe

Cherry ripe, cherry ripe, ripe I cry,
Full and fair ones come and buy.
Cherry ripe, cherry ripe, ripe I cry,
Full and fair ones come and buy.

Cherry ripe, cherry ripe, hear my names
'Empress', 'Merchant', stones in children' games
Cherry ripe, cherry ripe, Bing and Sweetheart
‘Stella' ‘Ulster''Nordwunder' in pie and tart

Cherry ripe, cherry ripe, ripe I cry,
Full and fair ones come and buy.
Cherry ripe, cherry ripe, ripe I cry,
Full and fair ones come and buy

Cherry ripe, cherry ripe 'Staccato'
'Simone' and'Regina', way to go
'Kordia', 'Sequoia', 'Chelan' as well
Rot spot and knot diseases, cherries' hell


Girls

What are little girls made of?
What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice and all things nice
That's what little girls are made of

What are little girls made for?
What are little girls made for?
Periods, childbirth, menopause
That's what little girls are made for

What are little girls made of?
What are little girls made of?
Original sin & mother's gin
That's what little girls are made of

What are little girls made for?
What are little girls made for?
The glass ceiling, cooking, cleaning
PMT and child rearing
That's what little girls are made for

Here lies a tree
Here lies a tree
it used to be
so cool, shady

by some decree
it was cut down
no bough to see
it's now a stump
a vacancy
Alas poor tree
Now RIP