meadow | Roland's Ragbag

Seagrass

I will sleep all night in your arms
Then whilst the day is dawning
We will wake and gaze out to sea
And together
Welcome back the morning

We’ll watch as the seagulls broil and fuss
As they dart over the incoming tide
Hear the call of the geese
Soaring over the breaking waves
Their stately beating wings
Presaging their arrival
Their fervour undiminished
As they return to the seagrass
The meadows of their dreams
To feed and live on

Such images reveal to me
Confirm my heart’s content
That life and nature exist
Perhaps their sole purpose
To ratify love
For each other
For humanity
Love for nature
And for all of creation

Kieran O’Lenahan

Until he died in 1996, Kieran, who was born in Ireland, lived and worked in Huntingdon. He cared passionately for the environment and made sure his voice was heard on local issues. One such issue resulted in the following poem submitted in 1974 to his local Council by Kieran in his representation against proposed local development . . .

Lament to Portholme

Sweet meadow
where one could walk
entranced in solitude, alone.
Lost in an immensity of open spaces;
disturbed only by the Skylark’s song.
Skylarks soaring, singing,
as the day was long.
Walking amidst wild flowers
and the flowers were many,
knee deep in a blossoming throng,
alas!
Sweet birds, sweet flowers,sweet solitude,
all, all, are gone.
No profit in solitude
of a Skylark’s song.
Where man’s soul soars
among the Skylarks
knee deep in blossoming flowers
bulldoze it,
rape beauty!
Progress, profit
greed alone,
but not alone in beauty
man destroys
when greed reigns supreme,
there is no beauty
no love
no feeling
no peace all sacrificed
all must cease,
when Mammon reigns
and man’s soul sleeps,
there is no other end
no future
Death
Destruction
Desecration
There is money in it!
Skylarks
flowers lost
entrancing meadows
perished
for ignoble ends.