The Country Sighed Poem by Paul Holmes

There are sparrows in the hedgerows
All aflutter and sounding distraught,
Twittering and constantly muttering
Over things that Man has wrought,
His philosophy over the years show
In our own cunning we’ve been caught.

‘Accelerate the growth of food,
The wheat and corn and rye,
Force feed soils with chemicals
And watch stalks touch the sky.’
But the ground seemed to move
And heave a heavy sigh.

There are salmon and rainbow trout
Swimming up river and stream
Eager to avoid the fisherman’s hook
And evade his cherished dream;
And if you stand still and listen carefully,
You can almost hear them scream.

‘Reel in all the fishes,
On their flesh we’ll have our fill,
Don’t worry about tomorrow
There’ll be some left still.’
And the stream seemed to shiver
At Man’s cold and callous will.

There are those who look at hedgerows
And rivers when on a country walk
And, carefully considering the countryside
They recoil, it makes them baulk;
If the country had a voice they wonder,
Of what words would it talk?