Verses inspired by a hornbeam pollard in Hainault Forest
During some of the Woodland Trust’s educational school trips to Hainault Forest, children were askedto write poems about a particularly old and gnarled pollarded hornbeam.
To help them start their poems they were given the following template:
From this . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .hornbeam tree
I can see a . . . . . . . . . . face . . . . . . . . . at me
Then they were asked to add a few more lines of their own. Here are just three of the verses they composed:
Alice from Coppice Primary
From this decaying hornbeam treeI can see a spooky face staring at me,
one of them is yawning -
A bit like me in the morning!
Sophia from Nightingale Primary
From this spooky hornbeam treeI can see a screaming face yelling at me,
It has 11 eyes open wide -
with lots of creatures hidden inside.
It’s got 2 enormous feet with claws
100 times bigger than mine and yours!
Jessie from Oaklands School
From this gnarled hornbeam tree
I can see a twisted face sneering at me,
Like Medusa, the branches wave in the air -
The evil snake staring, glaring from her hair.
