Poetry from Rose Farm in Cornwall by Penny Lally

You too could live Penny's life, but only if you don't mind being on the go fifteen hours a day, seven days a week, presenting a cheerful face to paying guests, finding genuine sympathy for those who bring their animals to the pet cemetery she runs. Having as sure a touch with a new-born puppy as a massive Simmental bull or an unbroken colt; if you can go to county shows and come home with hatfuls of prizes, then quietly mould beautiful heads in clay, as well as feeding, cleaning out and caring for a huge variety of creatures, many of them with two legs - oh and still finding the time to record some of this in verse, as you will see. Its that easy.

Penny has no literary pretensions. She paints what she sees, what she thinks, how she feels, in language as direct as it can be when tackling such themes, from dawn to night, from death to canaries. She takes you by the hand and leads you through the year in her eyes, with the clear light of a Cornish morning.
Penny has also been my sister all my life. We are as different as this and that, but we love many of the same things, from Nature to Manchester United. She is admittedly crazy, but her feet are firmly rooted in her native soil, she doesn't miss much„ and she's not a bad soul. I'm proud of her. Besides she's got Sky, so I need to keep on her right side...
Open your eyes, your mind and heart and enjoy. Michael Sagar-Fenton

Penny For Your Thoughts by Penny Lally - click on image for a larger view

Early Morning by Penny Lally
Warm sun, wet grass, butterflies on blackberries
Busy morning bees
Crowing cockerels, distant crying calves
Wisps of early mist snaking, serpent-like
Through the valley trees
Contented cattle chewing cud and basking in golden light.
Cool shadowy lane
Sparkling dew drops with million rainbows
A faithful dog beside.
Clear, clean autumn air sharp in your nostrils
Footprints track in the dewy grass, foxy smells,
Rabbits scuttling to ground.
Soaring seagulls, swooping swallows chattering.
Silver, silent aircraft overhead
Grazing sheep, cool and happy
Horses flicking flies with swishing tails
-Inquisitive, beautiful, shining.
The silence is deafening - no wind<
just busy beasts all shapes and sizes pleased
To be alive on such a day<
WHO WILL SPOIL IT....
Man-machines-telephones-traffic
Deadlines- stress-worry
Unaware what is always there, peaceful, free -
Birds and beasts, unflustered Unimpressed with material things.
Mother Earth, caring, providing, solid -
AMAZING.

Both books are available from Penny Lally at Rose Farm