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
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