HCE received a lot of high-quality submissions for The Green Issue – sadly, too many to fit inside the magazine! So we offered some writers and artists who’d sent in work the chance to be published here on the website. Keep an eye on our social media for more great work like this, now that The Green Issue print magazine has been released! (For more information or to purchase your copy, visit our shop.)
Mary Courtney
The Relations of Green
Green is related to…
Aunty Eileen from Clouncuneen
Who came over to Coventry in ’53.
To the old settee eating crackers and cheese
To the Cofa tree and the coffee beans
To the wheel of the cart and the carton of cream
To the toasty morning and the cuppas of tea
To the bumbling bee and the silent screen
The cigarette wheeze and the nicotine knees.
Green is the elongation of ee in the family tree
The sound in the words of the air that we breathe
The granny, the daddy, the baby, the teen
The Planet of Plants, the Plankton of Seas
The eagle, the egrit, the kiwi, the grebe
The guppy, the eel, the dory, the bream
The monkey, the weasel, chameleon, seal.
All life that is bound by eating your greens
Bounteous life on this Planet Canteen
Green is our sound, bound up in need
The family tree in bindwood and weed
Seeing the saw…yet fleeing the scene.
Coventry artist and poet. Visit Mary’s website here.