‘Sometimes… green thrives’
Good evening,
On Saturday I took a walk on the Lade Braes, and came upon the St Andrews Poetry Wall. I took a picture of the whiteboard on the garden wall.
Here it is if the handwriting is tricky for you:
Sometimes
Sometimes things don’t go, after all,
from bad to worse. Some years, muscadel
faces down frost; green thrives; the crops don’t fail,
sometimes a man aims high, and all goes well.
A people sometimes will step back from war;
elect an honest man, decide they care
enough, that they can’t leave some stranger poor.
Some men become what they were born for.
Sometimes our best efforts do not go
amiss, sometimes we do as we meant to.
The sun will sometimes melt a field of sorrow
that seemed hard frozen: may it happen for you.
Sheenagh Pugh lives in Shetland, writes poetry, fiction and reflections on fan fiction. Of this poem she has written that she “long ago got sick of it.” But if you have encountered it for the first time today, as I did on Saturday, you may not feel as Pugh does. And you may, like me, be cheered by its hope. I don’t know who is behind the St Andrews Poetry Wall but thank you, whoever you are.
On the same walk, I saw this tree drooping over the Kinnessburn. As Pugh wrote, ‘Sometimes… green thrives.’
Yours,
Donald.