The poet laureate, Simon Armitage, has written a new poem which pays homage to spring, in celebration of World Poetry Day.
Plum Tree Among the Skyscrapers is the first in a collection of poems inspired by blossom and commissioned by the National Trust. Its publication marks the beginning of the Trust’s annual blossom campaign, in which the charity will vow to bring blossom back to landscapes across the UK by planting 20m trees by 2030 to help tackle both the climate and nature crises.
The collection, which will consist of poems and other creative works including music, will be brought together by Armitage and his band LYR in collaboration with communities and creatives across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
It aims to help bring the National Trust’s blossom campaign to more people, help everyone connect with blossom wherever they are and offer ways for people to celebrate blossom in ways that are meaningful to them.
The charity will be planting several orchards at sites including Brockhampton in Herefordshire, Bateman’s in East Sussex, Arlington Court in Devon and Carrick-a-Rede in County Antrim, as well as new urban blossom gardens in Birmingham, Swindon, Manchester and Leeds.
Armitage said: “The National Trust is one of the great British institutions, a guardian of our past, present and future. When I became poet laureate in 2019, I made the environment a cornerstone of my work and my activities, so to be working with the National Trust on a project that celebrates the annual renewal of the natural world was a perfect fit.
“For this first poem, I was particularly keen to examine how nature might flourish in our urban landscapes, and about the tenacity of trees to be able to adapt to the most unlikely places.
“There is both ecstasy and melancholy associated with blossom, in its coming and its going; blossom trees are powerful metaphors for our own existence, as well as important indicators of the health of the planet.”
Andy Jasper, the head of gardens and parklands at the National Trust, said: “Simon’s poem is a wonderful reminder of the need to cherish the powerful connections we all have with the natural world. Whilst these rhythms of life appear to last for millennia, we know they are vulnerable, particularly in a changing climate.
“The National Trust’s blossom campaign is a celebration of the fleeting beauty of blossom and a celebration of spring not just in our wonderful gardens and parklands, but also throughout urban areas in every region and country of the UK. It is the investment in, and belief of, a future that will be there – for everyone, for ever, as we say – that makes this campaign and Simon’s poem so relevant and wonderful.”
The Trust’s Festival of Blossom will additionally take place at more than 100 locations across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, consisting of blossom-themed events and activities.
Plum Tree Among the Skyscrapers by Simon Armitage
She’s travelled for years
through tangled forests
and formal gardens,
edged along hedgerows,
set up her stall
on tenanted farms
then moved on, restless,
empty handed sometimes,
sometimes with fruit
in her arms.
She’s hopscotched
through graveyards and parks,
settled down in allotments,
clung to a church roof
by a toe.
She’s pitched camp on verges
and hard shoulders,
stumbled on threadbare moors
above the tree-line
and slummed it on wasteland,
but dug in on steep hillsides
and rough ground.
She was Queen of the May
on a roundabout once
in a roundabout way.
She’s piggy-backed
across trading estates, hitched
in a mistle thrush beak,
drifted with thistledown.
She’s thumbed a lift into town.
Now here she is,
in a cracked slab
in a city square
in a square mile
mirrored by glass and steel,
dwarfed by money
and fancy talk.
Hand-me-down brush,
pre-loved broom,
to the paid-by-the-minute
suits and umbrellas
and lunchtime shoppers
she’s a poor Cinderella
rootling about
in a potting compost
of burger boxes
and popped poppers.
In that world,
orchard and orphan
are one and the same.
But she’s here to stay -
plum in the middle -
and today she’s fizzing
with light and colour,
outshining the smug sculptures
and blubbering fountains.
Scented and powdered
she’s staging
a one-tree show
with hi-viz blossoms
and lip-gloss petals;
she’ll season the pavements
and polished stones
with something like snow.
