This engaging rural composition is from Sheena Blackhall’s new pamphlet, The Evil That Men Do (Lochlands, Maud, Aberdeenshire, £3). It is complete in itself but also carries a host of musical allusions, from Handel and Beethoven to Chopin and Grieg.

CONCERTO ON A BUCHAN FARM

(FADLYDYKE, NEW DEER)

Concerto is a strain of barley, suited for whisky distilling

Mankind, so high and mighty

Takes scant heed of such things

As death of fur and feathers

Of prickles, hides and wings

The cuckoos and the nightingales

That chant above the grass

They celebrate each pilgrimage

Of little souls that pass

They keep midsummer vigil

Of the bees’ marriage bed

Where ghosts of hens and butterflies

From farmlands have fled

The barleys’ rustle cheers them

A verdant waterfall

Of notes and trills of crickets

That under-strum it all

They hear the grains’ concerto

As sweet as Mendelssohn

And treasure raindrops’ echoes

When summer storms have gone