Tuesday 13 April 2010

This Green and Pleasant Land

This Green and Pleasant Land

Sitting high above this checkered quilt of many shades,
A amazing technicolour dreamcoat surrounds my entire gaze,
Stretching as far as the eye can see, a moment belonging to me,

The march of a thousand delicate buds of cotton wool,
Each one casting a shadow across this enchanting landscape,
Dancing in tandem with the waves of warmth on my back,

A gentle breeze moves through the air, turning a lonely windmill,
An army ten billion strong, waits for it command to charge,
Each soldier saluting the gusts which come before him,

Dotted like ants along this vista,
A herds of cows innocently chews the cud,
A newly born lamb takes its first steps,

Off in the distance, a polished church bell reflects the sunlight,
Rising chimney smoke guides my eyes towards contrails,
Unrehearsed yet perfectly harmonised, birds tweet the chorus,

In this unconditionally beautiful landscape sitting before me, serenity exists.


When I wrote this poem, I had an image in my head. When browsing some photographs that a colleague had taken, I came across an image that was exactly the one I had imagined. It was quite a moment for me to see the words as a picture! He has very kindly given me permission to use his photograph in this post. 

Image credit: Bobiko on Flickr


Explanation

Sitting high above this checkered quilt of many shades,
A amazing technicolour dreamcoat surrounds my entire gaze,
Stretching as far as the eye can see, a moment belonging to me,


Like placed high up on a hill overlooking lots of fields, each one with its own colour tone just like Joseph's technicolour dreamcoat.

The march of a thousand delicate buds of cotton wool,

Each one casting a shadow across this enchanting landscape,

Nice, white, puffy, patchy clouds moving slowly across the sky, with matching shadow on the ground

Dancing in tandem with the waves of warmth on my back,


Along with the sun oozing through between the clouds leaving a lovely feeling of warmth on the skin

A gentle breeze moves through the air, turning a lonely windmill,


Self explanatory right?

An army ten billion strong, waits for it command to charge,


Millions (well billions!) of blades of grass all standing straight up with a light gust of wind about to hit them

Each soldier saluting the gusts which come before him,


As the wind moves through, the move slightly all together as if saluting a commanding officer as he walks onto the parade ground

Dotted like ants along this vista, 


With a huge vista in view, being able to see hundreds of cows (and other farm animals) far away

A herds of cows innocently chews the cud,

A newly born lamb takes its first steps, 


Self explanatory right? Just describing some things you might see basically

Off in the distance, a polished church bell reflects the sunlight,


Self explanatory

Rising chimney smoke guides my eyes towards contrails,


Plane contrails...

Unrehearsed yet perfectly harmonised, birds tweet the chorus, 


Birds tweeting (not as in retweeting)

In this unconditionally beautiful landscape sitting before me, serenity exists.


Just a nice peaceful moment :)