Joan Knight

Great Houghton, Barnsley, S.Yorkshire

I was born at Great Houghton on 18 May 1932, and I am a retired teacher of Secretarial Skills. Hons: Dip RS. (shorthand, typewriting teachers). Cert. Ed, Finals of Assoc., Board of Royal Schools of Music (Singing, Theory). I am a member of the Methodist Church, where I am a solo singer, NCDL, RSPB, WWF. I feel to be in tune with the things of nature and have compassion for all creatures, particularly those that are being abused. My poetry portrays my deepest feelings although, in every day life, I am a very private person.

Oh Fitzwilliam Lane

Little damp meadow.
I played upon you in my childhood,
I gazed on your wild plants:
Trembling grass, penny moons, marsh marigolds,
Cowslips, celandine and rushes.
I listened to the birds' songs, even the lark's.
But your greatest beauty was the May blossom,
And the year you were taken,
I had never seen your hedges so glorious.
I marvelled at them every day
During the month of my birth
As I travelled to and from my work place.
Then you were gone!
I shall never forget you,
And I feel sad for the children
Who never saw you and played upon you.

Man's Inheritance

Large fields sweep to horizon's edge in shades of green and gold,
Encompassed by close-chopped hedges, bare soil beneath.
Some say there has been progress on the land,
But where have the wild creatures gone?

No bird's nests because thick hedges do not rise,
Animals have no cover under which to build their homes,
Without wild flowers, butterflies and bees do not come.
These are some of the casualties of progress.

Rain forests have been plundered for nothing else but gain.
Acid rain has belched forth from chimneys by the hundred.
C.F.C.'s have helped to rend the ozone layer;
Below drifts a pall of carbon dioxide.

Waters stretch out endlessly with hazards in their depths;
Nuclear waste is dumped therein and toxins seep from the land.
Sea creatures are poisoned, and lost oil ebbs with the tide
As tankers thrust on to win trade's fortune.

Mankind has seldom learned from history's mistakes and mess
That through greed and thoughtlessness catastrophe is earned.
How shall we be view as years march on through time?
As spoilers of the earth or its guardians?