In fallow fields (for Uncle Oliver)

Charles Oliver Styles
1913-2008

In farmer’s fallow fields

from tent and caravan

new seeds were sown.

On seaside beach

from pulpit dune

words and action,

grains of life

mix cry of gull

and childhood shriek of fun.

Then from the planting,

and shifting sands,

from tall tales told

and flannelgraph panoramas,

heaven alone knows

the magnitude,

and will reap

its crop.

Another hillside, centuries past,

another voice with words of love

and life in story disguise

fed and watered

a crop

that nurtured

the voice in farmer’s field.