Invocation

Come, you farmers, let us sing together
let us sing of the passion for planting
we the sowers and growers
live for the rising shoot and the spread root.

Let us sing a song of penance
for the ageless passion for crosses
staining the thick page of history
where we the peace lovers
fed and clothed the armies
where we the home lovers
milled like cows at the crossroads.
Let us sing low and sadly now
for the bellies not fed, the bare bed,
for rotten cotton and mouldy wheat
piled unfit to eat.

Let a Judas tree stand in every farmyard
to drip its bloody bloom at Eastertime
come, you farmers, Easter is also
the marriage of sun with the earth,
put a Judas tree in every garden
all you land lovers who lie down at night
on a bed spiked with mortgages,
you crazy farmers who trade a whole generation
for a piece of ground,
come, let us sing together under our Judas trees,
we of the strong backs and deep voices
let us sing about our farms.