Photo caption/credit: Fire-bearers circle figures of The Green Man fighting Jack Frost, Imbolc celebration in Marsden, West Yorkshire, February 2007. Credit Steven Earnshaw Creative Commons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Creative_Commons
As we destroy nature, we ultimately destroy ourselves, as this poem by David Greygoose so eloquently demonstrates.
THE GREEN MAN DANCES
The Green Man dances in the wood
By withered nettles where the oaks once stood
The Green Man dances in the wood
But the trees scream murder
As we burn them down
The Green Man has danced out under the stars
Under changing skies for a million years
Silver in the morning and the coal black night
Waking again for the last long fight
The Green Man dances in the wood
By broken glass where the tall cedar stood
The Green Man dances in the wood
But the trees wail murder
As we axe them down
Now the Green Man grieves by the poisoned stream
Weeping bitter scalding tears
The badger, the otter and the hare lie dead
Dark rooks drift in circles as the sky turns red
The Green Man dances in the wood
By barbed wire fences where the elm once stood
The Green Man dances in the wood
But the trees weep murder
As we hack them down
The Green Man danced wherever he chose
Before forests were stolen and fields enclosed
The Green Man danced before winding lanes
Twisted into the madness of motorways
The Green Man dances in the wood
By dark choking shadows where the larches stood
The Green Man dances in the wood
But the trees whisper murder
As we rip them down
The hounds bay blindly where foxes used to run
But the hunt for the Green Man goes on and on
The ring of shrinking woodland tightens in a snare
As the Green Man tracks frantic as a frightened hare
The Green Man dances in the wood
By brackish water where the broad beech stood
The Green Man dances in the wood
But the trees breathe murder
As we smash them down
We’ll catch him and beat him
And twist a jagged wreath
We’ll whip him and scourge him
And nail him like a thief
To the highest branch
Of his last oak tree
With blackbird, dunnock, jackdaw and crow…
But when the Green Man dies,
We all die too.