Guernsey - James Willis

Of gull grey, dull grey, glittering granite
The habitat of cormorant, guillemot and gannet.
Sea waves crash and sea spray splash,
Where Guernsey clad, Guernsey lads dash.

I’ll remember then, the fishermen, in broad beamed boats,
With winches and nets and bobbers and ropes.
Pots in trots and rollocks and anchor,
All combined to fish Pollock and chancre.

A grand man, the land man, ploughing the soil,
Hoeing and sowing and growing his toil.
Fenceless field, the common ground,
With cattle grazing rights , profound.

In privateer and pirate years, long past,
The ecological mould was cast.
The seigneur shrewd, the feudal mule,
For centuries did his fiefdom rule.

Smooth yellow sand, green mellow land,
Where houses and history and heritage stand.
French by connection, British by election,
A community committed to right protection.

James Willis