Poetry by Clare Best

The first scarecrows must have been real people, what an extraordinary job! When we think of a scarecrow today, the image we conjure up rises from our collective memory of rural life and from folk legends and stories (remember the scarecrow in 'The Wizard of Oz'?).

Many farmers now use noisy bird-scarers, or they set CDs spinning in fields to deter vermin, but I must admit I still prefer to see traditional scarecrows. The scarecrows at Woodlands have real character and dignity, and each one has a name.

To me, the scarecrow is a powerful symbol of the patience, watchfulness, stewardship and faith essential to cultivating the land.

Charlie

Potato-bag belly hanging from crossed planks,
a tangle of red netting for a face,
he's oilskinned against fen weather ,
open-armed, he leans mid-field
over drilled ranks of blue-green seedlings,
quietly scaring pheasant, hare, crow.
So many seasons he's stood and witnessed
cabbage and cauliflower mature,
nothing on his horizon but steeples
and skywash stapled to land with telegraph poles.