A Stroud RiffRaff RipRap

 

 

the people’s flag is deepest green
small is beautiful they say
the banks are full of bottles
now money’s had its day
it’s mutual aid exchange and mart
recycling that’s the way
poll tax claims turn to compost
so resist and disobey
the sheep are in the meadow
the cows are in the corn
New Agers are in therapy
there’s yoga on the lawn
Queen May holds court
up on Pagan Hill
King Harvest reigns
down in Hyde
there’s a ley line some say
straight to Avalon
by way of Mendip side

rap it!
steep step Stroud
head up in a cloud
feet down in the old canal
wool mill in a shroud

ecologists on Castle Street
earth mothers in the town
vegetarians in The Shambles
traveller convoy on the down
the piano factory blazes – again
the phoenix Pelican Pub re-sounds
rockanroll band in its back bar
while poets stand their ground
in Slad in Edge in Piedmont
a production line of verse
while the dole queues get much longer
and the slump gets worse and worse
hospitals and schools are closed
farm land is set aside
for theme park golf course country club
and the hungry are denied

rap it!
steep step Stroud
head up in a cloud
feet down in the old canal
wool mill in a shroud

come leveller and digger
eco-freak anarcho-punk
pagan Rudolf Steiner-ite
communard and Prinknash monk
green councillor utopian
feminist stoned dope-head
you dispossessed and riffraff
with no job no roof no bed
millennium approaches
change is in the air
the seasons have their cycles
hope’s the enemy of despair
in Stroud there’s something stirring
on the wold the wind is sweet
it’s blowing down from Whiteway
and sweeping through the streets

of steep step Stroud
head up in a cloud
feet down in the old canal
wool mill in a shroud
steep step Stroud
rap it long and loud
’til they have built Jerusalem
in steep step Stroud

.

Jeff Cloves

 

Notes

this poem was written in 1992 – a leap year
many of the references are now dated
but nothing much has changed
New Labour was in power – the Blair government
led us into a war in Iraq based on bogus evidence

Stroud Town (parish) Council was/is run by The Greens
Gary Snyder’s poem Riprap notes ‘cobble of the milky way’
the Bentley piano factory burned down in 1989
(see Laurie Lee’s ‘Cider with Rosie’)
poets: Laurie Lee Slad
Dennis Gould Edge
Mike Frances and Adam Horovitz Piedmont
Stroud’s five valleys once supported some 300 wool mills
Whiteway: Tolstoyan anarchist-pacificst community
still exists four miles from Stroud
Prinknash: Dominican Abbey near Stroud
poet and monk Dom Sylvester Houédard
Stroud poet Dennis Gould launched Riffraff Poets 1971

 

 

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