Hay ripens. I sharpen my tapering scythe blade
and chamfer its wafer of paper-thin steel
with stone swoops; it’s hooked like a peregrine’s talon.
The snaking shaft sweeps and the first swathe is side-laid
beside me, clean slain. As I swing I can feel
the gravid field yielding. Sheaves kneel and then fall in
the breeze in formation. Their early seeds dance there
like next April’s rain-showers shining in air.
The cocksfoot and rye-grass and fescue are falling,
the rogue oats, the sedges—I harvest the field where
they shaded the clover; and none do I spare.
The sun sets on stubble where hay-stalks lie sprawling;
my father stood here in the old days like one
of the stalks that made hay as they fell in the sun.

*****

John Beaton writes: “My father grew up in a croft on Skye and he’d scythe hay crops. As a boy, I saw him do it and, as a young man, I did it myself. I never forgot the rhythmic ease of his cutting. He’d been born to it. Anyone can scythe but there’s a skill in being able to do it effortlessly for whole days. It’s all in the rhythm and the precision of the swing.
One day, when I was scything dry hay and watching seeds scatter then fall, reseeding the ground, I thought of how I was succeeding my father. And I wrote this poem.
To capture the rhythm of the scythe, I used amphibrachic tetrameter lines with a mixture of masculine and feminine endings. For instance, the first two lines go:
da DA da da DA da da DA da da DA da
da DA da da DA da da DA da da DA
The other lines follow these patterns in varying order. The rhymes are abcabcdd effegg and the overall pattern is a modified sonnet. Strong internal rhyme and alliteration keep the lines swinging. I hope the reader sweeps and sways through it.”

John Beaton’s metrical poetry has been widely published and has won numerous awards. He recites from memory as a spoken word performer and is author of Leaving Camustianavaig published by Word Galaxy Press. Raised in the Scottish Highlands, John lives in Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island.
https://www.john-beaton.com/

“Scything” by London Permaculture is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.