Copse and Robbers

Gold cherry
Poem of the week

By Turlough

Mon, 06 Dec 2021
  • 9401 reads
23 comments
 

No Bulgar children, women or men

Can recall the day exactly when

They first strode into forested lands

With an axe on a shoulder or a saw in a hand

And a cart on which there would be drawn

Cut logs to burn to keep them warm

And cook and maybe fill the bath

During a Balkan winter’s icy wrath.

 

Since time began they’d only fell

The trees they’d need, unless as well

Some toothless Baba, wretched and old,

Or raw boned Dyado paralysed by the cold

Would want a few sticks to keep them alive.

Taking only this, poor people survived

And woodlands regrew to how they’d been

In an annual eruption of verdant green.

 

Just a small pile of logs was all that was needed

To fire up the petchka but now superseded

By new-fangled machines with instant hot water

Pumped through the big houses to heat every quarter.

But modernity burned such vast mountains of wood

And hills became bare where great forests once stood.

The Ministry men said this had to be stopped

With restrictions in place on what trees could be chopped.

 

All of a sudden their fuel ceased to be free.

Obtainable by means of a stiff licence fee.

No problem for those who could afford central heating,

But disaster for poor folk shivering and beating

Back the harshness of winter with a meagre supply

Of wood for the stove and a fear they might die.

The control of the logging had left them bereft.

Knowing to keep themselves warm they must turn to theft.

 

As darkness envelopes a late autumn day

The backwoods’ near silence drowns in an array

Of calls from a fox or a boar or an owl

And sometimes a chainsaw’s menacing growl.

With children at home all with bellies to feed

They only fell the trees that they need.

With no money to buy what once was theirs

The copse has the answer to their wintry prayers.

 

Note:

I’ve used a few Bulgarian words where the English equivalent just didn’t seem right.  

Baba (Баба) = Grandmother, or a general term for an old woman.

Dyado (Дядо) = Grandfather, or a general term for an old man.

Petchka (Печка) = Simple wood burning stove of cast iron construction. These have been the prime source of heating in many Bulgarian households since the day cast iron was invented.

 

Image:

From my own personal catalogue and showing the forest I see from my kitchen door.

Certificate U
Poem
Poetry in Commotion
Nature
Inspiration Point (work that responds to our weekly writing cue)

Comments

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

This is so interesting, and interestingly written. 

I suppose the problem is partly the demand of those living now in cities leading to 'mass production' of fuel source, by mechanically logging a lot at once, rather than the regular small inroads of those living by the woods.

The needs of all need to be attended to by government, and couldn't those who have central heating get it from some other fuel source? Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Turlough on

That's exactly the case Rhiannon. Bulgarians understandably want to move forward but they tend to forget the poor people who have no job and little money (or a poorly paid job) and who have no chance of embracing the attractions of the developed world. Before the technology came along they lived on what they could grow or breed or find in the forest but now they struggle with the new rules and regulations thrust upon them. They seem to yearn for a return to what the rest of Europe might see as the primitive times, which had much less impact on the environment here. I have no objection to them cutting down a few trees illegally but I do object to the big businesses cutting down a lot of trees legally. Sometimes I feel sad very for them. 

Thank you for reading and commenting. It's always appreciated.

Turlough

Submitted by Di_Hard on

That title is SO CLEVER :0)

I thought this poem was great! You explain the situation in an easy to understand way, with brilliant rhyme (it is a happy thing to find you have posted something) and make your point without blame, so the reader can make up their own mind. From reading I was able to understand local people's point of view but also that  of people in cities. Though the longer cities rely on wood (or coal) means the longer can put off sorting out renewables

"I have no objection to them cutting down a few trees illegally but I do object to the big businesses cutting down a lot of trees legally." That's so wrong! I guess government want the lobbying money from logging companies from other countries, too, like Germany claiming forest wood is bio fuel to make themselves look good when it isn't good, at all as trees are the only things actually stopping climate change. When people far away from the eyes of politicians are suffering so much now and will be worse with climate change, should be able at the least to have the right to make life livable with the resources of their own neighbourhood. But how you describe sounds more like starving poachers being hung for catching rabbits on rich landowners woods

Very interesting altogether. 

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Thank you for your kind words Di.

Your line starving poachers being hung for catching rabbits on rich landowners woods sums up the situation very well. Poor Bulgarian people are being forced into paying a lot of money for wood which they previously got free or cheaply. It's not their fault that forests are being depleted. It's the fault of more wealthy Bulgarians and immigrants with their big wood fired heating systems.

I try to be not guilty, though we are all guilty to a certain extent. I have an electricity driven thermal pump heating system. The sort of thing that environmentalists are encouraging us all to have. But it cost me an absolute fortune; about as much as some Bulgarian people would pay for a house. And in the deep midwinter it's not enough on its own so I fill up my stove with wood to take the edge off the bitter cold. However, so far I haven't bought any wood to burn. I only use logs from dead trees I have cut down on my land and the timbers removed from the roof of my derelict barn by building workers in recent weeks. My neighbours seem to like me doing this. Seeing a little smoke coming from my chimney now and again makes them feel I am one of them.

 

Turlough

Submitted by celticman on

poor Bulgars, hemmed in by the Great Powers, like the Irish and Scottish islanders with their peat, cut into blocks, winter to meet. Heat was almost free. It seemed to good to be true. Now on the other foot, pressed down on their neck, what can poor people expect? 

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Indeed! The bog people are a good comparison.

Impoverished Bulgarians, for me, are a bit like the grannies of  the Inuit people, pushed out to die on the ice so that they are no longer a burden to the younger, healthier family members who remain inside the igloo. I understand why but there must be a better solution.

Turlough

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

I love how you've woven a story into this poem Turlough. The rhythm and rhyme are perfect too. It's a sad story and reminds me of the American native indians who had their land taken away. People with power and loads of money always seem to win through in the end which just isn't fair because they just don't understand the bigger picture.

Trouble is once the damage is done, it's hard to go back and fix.

An eye opener of a poem in deed.

Jenny.

 

Submitted by Turlough on

I don't think the problem will ever be fixed Jenny. Environmental organisations and the European Union are putting pressure on the Bulgarian government to ban wood burning stoves completely but they are doing nothing to help ordinary people find the money for an alternative heat source.

Even if electricity was free (which it never will be, having increased in price by more than 50% in recent months), a lot of poor people here wouldn't be able to afford to buy an electric heater. Poverty forces some of them to burn rubbish and even old car tyres when they can't find wood. 

They really can't understand why something they have been doing for centuries now needs to stop. It's not their fault.

However, it's not all doom and gloom as the long hot summers in this fertile country shows another side to Bulgarian life in a subsistence farming sort of way.

Once again, thank you for reading my poem and for your comment. At last I have been 'upgraded' and I'm able to click the 'great feedback' button. 

Best wishes to you.

Turlough

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

A topic very close to my heart very well elaborated with skilled writing and fine rhyming, highlighting the concern we all feel, Turlough. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

 

Best, Luigi

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

This very interesting piece is causing quite a stir on ABCTales - that's why it's our Facebook and Twitter Pick of the Day!

Pleaee share/retweet if you enjoyed it too

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Thank you very much for the golden cherries. I'm very grateful indeed. And I love a good stir.

Turlough

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

This is our Poem of the Week - Congratulations!

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Ah now, I'm delighted to hear that. Thanks very much, yet again.

 

Turlough

Submitted by drew_gummerson on

Excellent read. And congratulations on your pick of the week. 

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Thank you Drew for taking the time to read and comment. 

It's greatly appreciated.

Turlough

Submitted by marandina on

Super stuff - a great poem and you have kept a rhyming rhythm all the way through. Not easy. Congrats on the POTW. Well deserved. Paul

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Ta very much Paul. 

Turlough

Submitted by lenchenelf on

never goes amiss, your title an exemplar :)

In your vignette of rural Bulgarian life, you show a small but significant  glimpse of real and perpetual problems of global economic inequality, your chosen subject one that highlights an ideal of climate change strategies whilst those least able to redress wrongs of those with power have little agency other than to subsist. A grim tale, told with warmth.

Best

Lena 

 

 

Submitted by Turlough on

It is indeed a grim tale that reflects the real-life plight of many people that I see around me.  

Thank you Lena for taking the time to read my words and comment. It's greatly appreciated.

Turlough

Submitted by hilary west on

Good sense of rhythm and rhyme and very interestingly written about the specific problems of this race of people.

hilary     frown

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Thank you Hilary for your time and your kind words.

Turlough

Submitted by Richard L. Prov... on

Powerful and gutsy!  Sadly, in my part of Canada, it is not uncommon for a rich person to buy a sixty thousand dollar wooden cottage and destroy it simply to get more space to build an extension to their palatial cottage by a lake. Many questions come to mind and only the rich have proper answers.

Richard L. Provencher

Submitted by Turlough on

In Bulgaria you only need to be comfortable to be considered rich. When I see poor people in our village my heart aches for them. They must think that I am very rich, so I help those that I know in simple ways. Even during our dark days of Communism the government would have kept them warm in winter. It must seem like the world has turned against them, and I'm sure this is happening right across Eastern Europe. It's so desperately sad.

Thank you for reading my writing and for your comment. It's very much appreciated.

Turlough