Tobacco Picking Near Motueka. Poem by Michael Walker
Tobacco Picking Near Motueka.
It was my first experience of hard labour,
working in the green fields under the sun,
on a long working holiday near Motueka.
The kindly farm owner lent me a cottage across the road
from the fields where we started early, finished late
on my first experience of hard labour under the sun.
I picked the larger green leaves at ground level first,
moving along the rows and up the plants to smaller leaves
on that working holiday just out of Motueka.
There were tractors and trailers coming round regularly,
takingleaves to the sheds where I sorted them out
on my first experience of hard labour.
I met other students and older seasonal workers too.
We went to dances in town on late Saturday nights
on that holiday job out of Motueka.
This was a long time ago; it was positive.
I did not know then the end-product was so utterly negative
on my first experience of labouring under the sun,
on that working holiday just out of Motueka.
_ July,2012.
Picking tobacco for long time at last you realized the negatives of its is really amazing poem of awareness. Nicely penned.
So tobacco is 'evil'? I was never a 'smoker' but worked around enough at times, enough meaning at least one. But i feel smokers derive benefits from smoking (sometimes at least) , a calming effect perhaps, which may make up for some of the negatives, like burning in a house fire, or getting cancer or emphysema! A person in a formerly 'big tobacco-growing state' in the U.S. told me, or i read it, that before pesticides etc., tobacco 'never caused cancer'. to MyPoemList bri :)
Hmmm.... never done a villanelle before. You did a good job with this one. I would invite you to read my poems (I have five of them) but my account is new and Poem Hunter has not activated them yet. I don't understand this. I thought people would be able to read them at once when they were posted!
You made the villanelle form work (no pun intended) in this poem, Michael—the repetitions flow naturally. -Glen
I loved the feeling and images in your poem. It tells an important early story. It has the flavor of the South Island. I have been there.
Thanks for such an encouraging comment, especially that it has 'the flavor of the South Island'. As a North Islander, that's what I was hoping to achieve.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/24/2024 11:24:42 PM # 1.0.0.1119
'I picked the larger green leaves at ground level first, moving along the rows and up the plants to smaller ones' history past, the government outlawed the crop, a have a friend who lives next to be empty former tobacco drying sheds, empty of everything except air
Your comment updates nicely what has happened to tobacco growing since I was there 50 years ago. Thanks.
Thanks for your quote of two lines and updating comment too.