Children's Poem - Song of the Earth

Look deep into the hidden world of ponds.
Mosses, tadpoles, the gently-moving fronds
of water-crowfoot. Help clean up
this tiny world. Curled tendrils of fern
peer hopefully through bin-bags, chip-papers, 
choke on polystyrene. Green water
fights for its breath amid the stink fo sewage, 
black rainbows of oil. Mersey and Alt, 
Dee and Weaver leave a cry for help
with every tide. Our leavings mark
their riverside. 

So bring in your wellies, bring in your macs, 
never mind sore feet or aching backs. 

Take a dawn walk on Hilbre. Wait
in the silvery light to see the birds migrate. 
Clean up the Lowfields, clean up the beach, 
clear the canal and footpath, each of you
can find a small thing to do 
to reciprocate. Give back the gifts
of scabious and celandine, wood anemone
and wild garlic, before it’s too late. 

So bring binoculars, notebook and pen, 
this land can be green and pleasant again.

Families lark in the mud to trace the tiny creatures. 
A pond made safe for toad. Behind the motorways, 
the access-roads, the land shyly reveals its features. 
In Kirby a wood grows where one nearly died; 
look inside: see how new life starts
beneath tyres and tin cans, boxes and shopping-carts. 

So bring your raincoats, bring your boots, 
dig in the earth and find your roots. 

Life is short but the earth is long
put your ear to the ground and hear its song.

From The World’s Your Lobster. Published by Bloomsbury, 1998.