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The sublime poet Suzette Benjamin is the Poet of the Week for this week’s W3 Weekly Poetry Prompt #75. Here are her guidelines:

Suzette’s prompt guidelines
Compose a poem on the theme of: What ‘harvest’ means to you.

What does harvest mean to me?

What does harvest mean to me?
Hmm, let me think,
Let me see,
I live in London Town
Does it mean more loaves on the shelves?
White bread and brown?

I see no corn dollies in these city streets
I see no rolled up haystacks wrapped in black plastic sheets.
On a visit to the countryside 
my kids thought they were dragon poo left in a field
Not bundles of hay stacked in stacks
Not oats, rapeseed, poppies or flax 
from the late summer yield
But dragon poo
(What can you do)

I know when farmers cry, “The harvest’s in!”
The weather’s been dry with just enough rain.
The barley’s in the barn and so is the grain

There are no haywains in these city streets.
No orchards of apples
No fields to lie fallow
No hills. (there’s Ludgate hill)
No cropped crops 
No ditches or rills
No reaping, threshing or winnowing
No farmyard tools
No ploughs or scythes
No scarecrows, 
No country bumpkin fools
(only city ones)
No oxen, horses or mules
(come to that, they’re not in the countryside either)
They’ve all been replaced by the combine harvester.


Lesley Scoble, October 2023

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Notes

HARVEST
The origin of the word harvest comes from the Old English haerfest, which means autumn.

THE CORN DOLLY
Corn dollies are one of the folk customs of early harvest time. The Pagans believed that the spirit of the corn lived in the crop. When harvested, it left the spirit homeless. 
They weave a corn dolly from the last sheaf. This token of good luck for the next harvest is to spend the winter in the farmer’s home. 

FESTIVAL
In the UK, we hold the Harvest Festival on the Sunday nearest the harvest moon. The harvest moon is the full moon that occurs closest to the autumn equinox on the 22nd or 23rd of September. I shall look out for the harvest moon in our London sky.

THE COMBINE HARVESTER
In 1826 in Scotland, the Reverend Patrick Bell created a reaper machine (the scissor action of this invention is still in use today).
Hiram Moore invented the combine harvester in the US in 1834. Former models being pulled by teams of horses, donkeys or mules. Moore developed his full-scale invention in 1839.

THE HAY WAIN
In my poem, I mention haywains.
A haywain is a traditional type of large, open, horse-drawn wagon or cart used for conveying hay or straw. It was essential for transporting harvested crops.

The Hay Wain (1821) by the English artist John Constable
This famous painting depicts a haywain going through the water. It is a beautiful pastoral scene, and one of my favourite paintings. The scene in Flatford Mill, Suffolk, still looks much as it did in Constable’s painting. The white cottage is called Willy Lotts Cottage and is still there today.

To Sum Up

What does harvest mean to me?
Harvest, when it comes down to it, and with everything combined (pun intended), is a time to celebrate nature’s bounty and the fruits of labour. It is a pivotal moment in the seasons. Harvest time is when we reap what we sow. What we grow. Oops, I feel another rhyme coming on…

HARVEST TIME IS A TIME FOR THANKS

Thank you Suzette for your inspiring poetry prompt. Read Suzette’s beautiful poem, Ode to the Soil here.

Thank you, David, for your W3 Weekly Prompt on The Skeptics Kaddish.

IMAGE CREDITS
Haystacks in Provence by Van Gogh (1888) | Courtesy of www.VincentVanGogh.org
The Hay Wain by John Constable (1821) | National Gallery, London
The Gleaners (Des glaneuses) by Jean-François Millet completed in 1857

FOOTNOTE

My secret drawer. Click here for a little bit more…
THE WURZELS and THE COMBINE HARVESTER (and a little bit of personal history on a harvest theme)

Once upon a time, I was a dancer on Granada TV’s series The Arrows.
One week we worked with the wonderful, ebullient group of musicians called The Wurzels.

Below, I show you a clip of them singing in that very show in their inimitable country bumpkin style, their hit song The Combine Harvester.

When the day’s shoot was over, the Wurzels invited us to join them in their dressing room—where they had an enormous barrel of Somerset Scrumpy! 🥴
I love those guys. Please, let’s now raise a glass of the apple picked brew to the brilliant and unforgettable Wurzels. Cheers boys! 🍎 

The Gleaners

Jean François Millet, French artist (born on 4th October 1814) was a master of painting pictures of harvest time. One such painting was The Gleaners.

I was a dancer on telly. Our dance group’s name was Him and Us. In one of the shows we did a number to Dolannes Melody by Jean Claude Borelly and it involved us dancing inside Millet’s famous painting, The Gleaners.

This pretty poor image is a screen grab from The Arrows series. It is a harvest scene and shows me carrying a fardel of freshly harvested twigs. The costumes were copies of the subjects’ clothing in Millet’s painting.

What does harvest mean to me? At this period in my life, it meant prancing around with a load of fardels to music. 

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Lesley lives in the City of London Square Mile. An artist, actor and sculptor (her first ceramic sculpture won the V&A inspired by… Award). Scenic artist & book illustrator, playwright, (her musical play, Rapscallion performed in inner city schools and theatre school); TV dancer; Animator and illustrator for TV production. Set up Pinecone Studios Ltd and IIMSI Ltd drama and filmmaking workshops in London – producing award-winning films made by children.