Mushrooms appear

Detail from the quilt 'A Bomber's Moon' from Stitching the Wars.

"Mushrooms grow in a fairy ring"

that's the first line

spit it out Tennyson.

Cook them in milk and put them on toast

wrote a poem about mushroom collecting;

half past 3 in the morning with a torch

if you don't get caught

sell them to the George Hotel

  

on the Yorkshire Range all chrome and black

a cottage owned by the Duke of Devonshire

gamekeeper collected rent

two shilling and threppence

food on ration, darning mushroom

my children didn't get meat til they were 5

go to Birley Woods with a pram and a saw

to cut logs, hawthorn's a marvel for burning

dawdle down

blackberrying, get your fingers prickled

snickle rabbits with a wire and peg

I can skin them for you

rose trees, rose bushes, either side of the lane

pick em time after time

time races the tide, waits for no man

pick rosehips while you may.

Eileen, Mary and Judy

Hope

3 July 2014

From the arthur+martha project Stitching the Wars. A Two year collaboration with older people in Derbyshire, producing two embroidered quilts, a book, interviews and a series of poems. 

More poems found here. A short documentary film about the project found here.