The Needwood Wassail

Two sides bordered by Derby-lands
In the west, dark Bagot’s brooding stands
Trent to the south the flowing lifeblood
‘twixt them all, our fair green wood

Wassail! Wassail! On this Twelvey night!
Wassail Wassail! Your whole year be bright!

Our ancient forest calls to the heart
Rich soil, gentle valleys, never to part
Stout oak, lithe hazel, the black elder tree
We raise up our glasses and drink unto thee

Wassail! Wassail! On this Twelvey night!
Wassail Wassail! Your whole year be bright!

We, the folk of the five parishes
We, the stewards of the wood, cherish’d
Open up! Open up! And let us all in,
Open up! Open up! Or we’ll make a right din

Wassail! Wassail! On this Twelvey night!
Wassail Wassail! Your whole year be bright!

Saved from the axe, saved from the fire
The Needwood is rising, rising like spires
The Winter is going, watch it retreat,
Good health, raise cheer, give thanks for the feast

Wassail! Wassail! On this Twelvey night!
Wassail Wassail! Your whole year be bright!

Wæs þu hæl!

Double Helix

Crunching onto rime-hatted ground
Crackling underfoot, sound waves
Rippling through me, cold
Reverberating in my ear drums –
Sound waves; a winter susurration
Glancing up –
A thousand whispering wings
Soughing as the wind,
The scything virgule
Of October’s leaf-fall harvest.
A writhing, gyring vortex:
Helix, double helix, helix…
A murmuring murmuration
A living hive of DNA
Spinning, cavorting, whipping
In eddies and counter-currents
Stable yet unstable
Chaotic yet ordered
Tribal yet singular –
Away then, over the ice-tipped field
In a playful, whooping migration
Before dissolving as vapour
Will-o-the-wispish, dreamlike
Ethereal, lost
Into the Needwood
And the tree-spiked horizon.