Two appreciative little poems about the most bright of adornments of the spring countryside.

The Yellow Gorse comes from White Horses by Garfield Taylor of Scarborough (The Book Guild Ltd); the other from a Scottish viewpoint.

                  THE YELLOW GORSE

So full of colour are those hillside and heaths

That are painted with splashes of flowering gorse;

So thick and spiny, and always most thorny,

But sprinkled throughout with deep yellow blooms.

Ulex Europaeus, its cover so copious,

Can be used as windbrakes and hedges;

Appearing in meadows, on clifftops and ledges,

Its prickly presence will not always please.

But wild birds do like it, will nest in its thicket,

And yellowhammers blend with its flowers in May.

But try to remove it, bulldoze or dig it,

And you’ll find that it simply won’t go away.

It sprouts out new branches and grows ever thicker,

With more yellow flowers to brighten the day.

WHAT ODDS ITS NAMES?

Whin or gorse?

What odds its names?

Its sunburst flames

In northern spring

Ignite hillsides, golf links,

With prickled splendour,

Its heady scent

Is heaven-meant

For birds and bees who,

Unlike humans, scorn

The menace of green thorn.