Fife Fire Tongue-twister

FIFE FIRE TONGUE-TWISTER

If five fit Fife firemen
fear fir fires,
can five fit Fife firemen
fight fir fires in Fife fir forests,
for four Forfar firemen
fear for five Fife firemen
fighting fir fires,
and when four Forfar firemen
find five fit Fife firemen
can fight fir fires,
will four Forfar firemen
find fighting Fife fir fires fearful ?

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Hope Bowdler, 8th September 1982

Publication

1998 Poetry Scotland (UK)

Moon Rising over the Shropshire Hills

               MOON RISING OVER THE SHROPSHIRE HILLS

               gently the brown hill slopes
               to forest of hard fir

               above the edge
               in cool, cloudless sky

               a tiny sliver of yellow light
               peeps

               graduates
               into a demon disc

               rests ready to roll
               earthly firs stand firm

               the moon
               rises to its rightful sky

              ©  GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Hope Bowdler, 7th September 1982

Publications

1983 Folio (UK)
1986 FUTURES (Ipswich, Magic Pen Press)
1988 Quickenings (USA)
1992 California State Poetry Quarterly (USA)

Farmer Cornfield

FARMER CORNFIELD

Rounding Roseberry corner
driving his tractor like a TR7
making the landlord's Jaguar shudder
"It'll stop when we get to the top
of the Caradoc" he shouted
aiming over the steep fields
at the fifteen hundred foot hill
Over one of his pints in the "Plough"
he confessed to the fitting
of a super-charged gearbox
"You nearly gave the vicar
his fourth stroke" the landlord said
"Oh I've had more than that -
when I was at school -
but 'twas with a walking stick -
down here - " he says, "I reckon
that's what's made me what I am"

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Hope Bowdler, 3rd September 1982

Publications

1992 Songs (UK)
1994 Boggers All (UK)
1996 PENNINE TRACKS (Heckmondwike, Fighting Cock Press)