This poem is what Greenpeace put up to remember the poet Benjamin Zephaniah after his sudden departure from this Earth. I have just been listening to 'Desert Island Discs' and the music he chose, he was a Rastafarian, something of which I know little of, except for the dreadlocks, but his choice was mostly for the words. Funnily enough the one record he did choose as his favourite was 'Take Five' by Dave Brubeck. I think it is the only jazz music that I really like! I came to it early and whenever I hear it on the radio, I stop, and listen.
But in one of the interviews on radio 4 he mentioned that he had a Corkscrew Willow tree, which grew quickly and had almost covered his shed in the garden.
Well that brought back a memory of my friends Roy and Sybil and their tiny cottage and long garden. Sybil, a very good friend who I would visit often gave me cuttings of a willow and the Corkscrew willow. Just put them in a jar of water and they sprouted roots and so into the garden they went. They grew like Jack's beanstalk and I was delighted with them. Zephaniah mentioned that the tree only lives for a short time, which in fact mine did, but he reckoned his had lasted a long time.
But it brought back happy memories of sitting in Sybil's garden having lunch or tea. The day when we buried her German hound under the bench. She had sat at the top of the stairs in the cottage, nursing the old dog whilst he slipped away and the burying of him in the garden was a fitting thing to do.
Summer garden
Gorgeous garden.
ReplyDeleteThey were very narrow and long the gardens Sue, I think the cottages had been built in the middle of nowhere for miners at one stage.
DeleteI know a joke about a man with a corkscrew willow - he would wring it out after use. I may have misheard.
ReplyDeleteWell I am not sure what to make of that joke Tasker, or how to read it;)
DeleteI once asked a Jamaican friend of mine what Rastafarians were all about. He said, 'All it is is they go up into the mountains, smoke a lot of dope, then come down and talk a lot of rubbish'. I'm still not sure.
ReplyDeleteYour friend was probably right. They don't touch alcohol and Zephaniah is a vegan. But they do smoke marijuana and believe that Hailie Selassie 1st is God. Anyway you can find the religion on the BBC religious file. It was started in the 1930s.
ReplyDeleteI had to wander off right away to see if bats growl. The things I learn from blogs!
ReplyDeleteWell apparently they do. Just checked. the sound is like death metal singers. They just normally squeaked in the garden at Normanby.
DeleteI know. I was fascinated to learn this. I never knew!
Delete