Poetry in Action

The National Trust has come under huge fire recently for its controversial vote to allow trail hunting to continue on its land.  As an ex-hunt sab of over 20 years I was appalled by the result (as I know that kills still happen 'accidently' under this guise).  It needs to be stopped, full stop.

However, from our local perspective we are truly grateful for the existence of the National Trust. Call us NIMBY's if you like but in terms of preserving the Cornish coastline, the National Trust are pretty good (in fact we wish they would concentrate on that more, over some of the musty old houses they spend fortunes on).  

Having seen in recent years the continuing and seeming over development of the Cornish landscape, it is becoming increasingly important that the National Trust has the funding and campaigning power to preserve as much of our natural environment as possible; for the wildlife if nothing else. 

With this in mind, a recent National Trust project very local to us caught our eye.  It involved a local school, the most important audience to get on board for future-proofing the preservation of our environment and leading more conscious lives.  The students helped clear overgrown areas and were then asked to reflect on their experiences of the coastal habitat with poetry.  These poems were then displayed in intervals along one of our beautiful coastal footpaths for all to read and reflect on.  

The poem in the top photo was particularly poignant given the recent trail hunting vote.  We hope that the National Trust will take note of the powerful voice of our future when they read "We don't need to hunt or kill the environment".  For us, this gives us hope for the future.  These young people were not only inspired by the environment in a beautiful and creative way, but for many there is also an obvious love and need to protect it.  That should be nurtured.  

We should of course let the National Trust know how we feel and indeed money does talk.  However, rather than completely dismissing the National Trust for the dubious and outdated vote to continue trail hunting, we should also be remembering the good things that come out of such a powerful organisation.  Our local chough population after all might not be in such a good place if it didn't have this wild landscape to thrive in.  

So let's not let them off the hook, and let's continue to campaign against things that are wrong, but let's also recognise what is being done right.  It is human nature to complain about things that are not right but how many of us ever make the effort to share when something is done well?