To it man, afoot
Sky clear, resolve firm
Foundations laid too
Spring in step scene
Revel in the ground
Seeds deep in root base
Promise more to come
Light will glow, endure
End of day, toil done
Apparently sewn
Laid back, feeling smug
No room for earth bug
Who decides the sky
Open forth, ruin, spill, prise
Tear apart that done true
Only bemoan and rue
Why bother to plan at all
For all goes in a flash
A storm, a quake, a moon
As if to wrestle in open hole
Herein lies faith of old
Muscle bound to do
Mind sound to act
Despite all fear of cold
Season change and mind awoke
Effect in all manner sore
Things to plan, to make, to prosper
Hell if it requires a rake
This is the spirit of our kind
Climate of the past
Season yet to come
Very nature that man may find
Personal take
It’s all so easy.Wake up in the morning and go about your daily chores and rejoice in the dignity of work. Well, that’s how it was or at least how we are told it used to be – I wonder if there were skivers in those days too. These days it seems we are all too taken up with ‘other things’ to simply rise after dawn and put in a good day’s graft. Is it the distraction of so much technology nowadays or are we just unhappy souls fighting our existential dramas.
The poem takes on something of a hymn form and texture and has overtones or even undertones of ‘onward Christian soldiers’! All too often today we excel in dreaming and planning an escape to lush pastures but are not so commendable when needing to get head down and go about productivity so as to reap the rewards. We have become far more questioning of why we should put in effort, some would say that we do not even question the fact of whether we should attempt to put in effort or not, bred as we are to take things for granted. Perhaps such a condition is an off-spin of progress and peace and relative prosperity – but still a cause for concern. ‘Working the ground’ looks to contrast ways of yesteryear with ways of today and it’s not coincidental that rural charms are at the centre for as there has been a move to urbanisation there has been a shift in values, values once held true and rarely questioned, but which nevertheless gave the earthly life a foundation and a reward, at the end of the day and at the end of a life. There was reason and hope, there was satisfaction and there was reward, there was even brotherhood of man. Our generations can often seem somewhat in limbo and having neglected and moved away from the land struggle to have a set of beliefs with which to foster family and friend. The present state of the world is symptomatic of all and we are now faced with a civilisation unsure of its tomorrow.