Weeding in the Tillage Field c.1969 by Edward Denniston

Weeding in the Tillage Field c.1969

Drizzly rain in for the day. The young lad,
set to weeding the tillage-patch in the Big Field
beyond the orchard, under the weight of dead-man
Pop Johnston’s coat:

threadbare black Crombie, splashes of dung, long dried,
caked into the sun-bleached weave, the girth
folded over itself, belted and tied with a length
of pungent harness leather;

and a dusty jute sack across the shoulders; around the knees
sacking tied with bailer twine; trousers tucked in
to a pair of Stella’s wellies. For good measure,
Pop’s black sou wester.

There he is, alone, drenched with contentment
at the end of the carrot drills, stood in the ooze of a tractor tram
glancing up to Mc Keogh’s ditch at the headland,
ready to kneel, crawl in the damp gully,

submerge himself beneath waves of dreeping foliage,
soft clothy rain, digging fingers, divining
how roots hold on, exposing dark crumbly soil –
scutch, cress, robin-round-hedge, buttercup, doc.

On hands and knees, I know how happy he was, hidden,
laying down a bed of wilted green between the drills,
breaking the back of the work before he’d hear a voice
calling him for tea, when he’d raise himself

and stretch and turn to look beyond the roof of the house,
when he felt he might for ever after weed drills, felt
effortlessly rooted, attended to and cared for
by the Big Field, and the calling voice

calling him back tugged at imaginings
he hardly knew how to speak. Sometimes
I query him there on the headland,
that young lad, and he just carries on –

hunkers down
in drizzly rain,
crawls into a carrot drill,
is gone to the weeding.

Learn more about Edward on our Contributors’ Page.

Edward’s latest collection, Vital, was published by Compost Poetry and is available here.

(Photo: michelle/flickr.com/ CC BY 2.0)

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Edward Denniston

Originally from Longford town, Edward Denniston has lived and worked in Waterford City since 1980, the city to which his Presbyterian ancestor came as a dissenting minister in the early 18th century. As a young boy he inherited his grandfather’s farm at Drumnacross, outside Longford town. Edward is a retired teacher of English and Drama. His publications are: The Point of Singing (Abbey Press, 1999); Eskimo Advice – an e-book (Rectory Press & Hayrake Poetry, 2007); Interacting – 60 Drama Scripts (Russell House Publishing UK, 2007); The Scale of Things (Salmon Poetry, 2013) and For Crying Out Loud (Salmon Poetry, 2017). Hospital Voices (2018), in collaboration with composer, the late Eric Sweeney, for the 25th Anniversary of Waterford Healing Arts Trust. As editor: Teachers Who Write (Waterford Teachers’ Centre, 2018). In 2021, Entry and Exit Wound: a text to accompany music composed by Grainne Mulvey and first performed at Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin.

VITAL (Compost Poetry, 2023) is his most recent collection.

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