Local Poetry

Elnup  By Sandré Clays

Ancient, enduring from ice age
against the odds,
its marshy remnants of primeaval habitat
a wasteland of butterbur
where cranesbill creep through rubble.
Here peacock butterflies stir
bedeck the nettles
and the speedwell thrives.
A mill pond from the reservoir is silted up
Now the wood rises in a cup
but intersected by the stream
on which marsh marigolds
launch newborn floats
teem through to territories anew.
A mine turnes wild
Nature reclaims for a while
but still man shapes the future
like the pastor planting greedy seeds
so oak, elms, sweet chestnut
will not survive
ensure the future's beech