NaPoWriMo Day 5 - The Dreaded Nature Poem

The prompt on NaPoWriMo.net this morning was to write a poem about the natural world. I find nature poems really difficult because I just associate them with school and boring English lessons. Since the age of 13 I’ve read some nature poems I really like; I’m more inclined to give Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes a go than I used to be and Luke Wright has some poems about Englishness and English countryside which I like.
But I really struggle to write it. This is pretty clunky but it’s alright for half an hour’s work.
What Will Survive Us
He was here with my sister
the day my Grandad died
digging up parsnips for dinner
late eighties and mobileless
my Mum screaming over the fence.
Then me in rolled up dungarees
being generally unhelpful
with a watering can
before teenage angst
and furious sighs
every time I caught sight of him.
And now between hospital trips
and scans and tests and ECGs
we all pile over here
for a glimpse
at his secret weekend retreat
of seedlings and makeshift scare crows
wood plank walkways
a bottle of Brew Dog
and the wind up radio
a remnant left from
before I showed him podcasts
and Bluetooth headphones.
He says
every third person here’s on Warfarin
he’ll be in good company
they nod and wander over
to trade stories
of potatoes
and heart valves
and cutting down
confirm the date
of the next
seed swap
cider press
bonfire day
what morning is the leaf man coming?
Dave points out to Sadie
a building he’s done some work in
and she can successfully find
Nana’s school
where Nana’s the big boss
and I’m tasked with rotavating
or pruning a Buddleia
clumsy
generally unhelpful
and wishing that I’d listened more.