An imaginative collection of folk-related poem in five sections:
1 Full fathom folk – 14 poems also on CD accompanying the book
2 Folk poetry
3 King of Essex
4 Hand-me-downs and elegies
5 Community singing
PLUMP AND JOVIAL …
It was a plump and jovial
Chap at my first folk club
I was young and long-haired
In the back room of the pub
Instead of raucous chorus songs
Sung both late and early
Once, a change of pace, he sang
The Wind That Shakes The Barley
I thought it was an English song
Agricultural, dreamy
But the feeling of timeless romance
Captured my heart clearly
It caught a stillness, caught a grace
A seed was sown then surely
Both old and new and of the heart
Was the song that caught me wholly
He may not have sung all of it
But I expect he knew its history
Written by a clever Irish scholar
About rebellious glory
And perhaps the rebel in old Gil
To be a serious folky
Identified with all that stuff}
In the song that caught me wholly
And now I like my whole mistake
With traditional creativity
I did not judge, discriminate
Through my ignorance heard plainly
A yearning for a truth and love
Beyond my day’s empty glory
Renewal of the mind and heart
In the song that caught me wholly
So I thank that plump and jovial
Chap who sang so plainly
And I thank that little back room club
And the song that caught me wholly
And the wind that shakes the barley