Come, all you shoppers

Harvest Festival time again. Here's a song wot I wrote a few years back, to fit the hymn tune (originally an English traditional tune) 'Kingsfold'. It's offered with a respectful nod to the memory of the late Sydney Carter, who wrote ‘Come, all you makers’.

1 Come, all you shoppers of the world
and sing with me today
Oh, join me on the journey
we mark this Harvest day.
I travel in Creation
I’ll travel to its end
I share its joy and sorrow through
the Holy One I send.

2. I’ll travel by the tilling and planting of the earth
the weeding, watering, mulching
that gives the seed new birth.
I’ll travel by the harvesting
of crops — of grape and grain,
the skills of those who labour
for you ‘by hand or brain’ (footnote 1)

3. I’ll travel with the oxcart
from paddy, pen or field
the haggling of the market
and the driving of a deal
with those who drive the road trains
refrigeration cold
from silo to container
and down into the hold

4. I’m there at port and warehouse
by packing belt and crate
I share the migrant worker’s
low-paid, uncertain fate
I watch the politicians
of subsidy and trade
the ones who fix the prices
the ones who dole out aid

5. I crouch beside the peasant
whose harvest can’t compete
with a million tons of surplus
from a subsidised élite.
And then, by truck and trolley,
and supermarket shelf
I reach your kitchen table
. . . and watch you feed yourself

6. I’d love to share the stories
of those I’ve travelled with —
the pain, the exploitation,
the skill, initiative,
relief and celebration
of harvest gathered in,
which is no less mysterious
for coming in a tin.

7. But the more that you’re not interested
or ‘haven’t got the time’
the more the new creation’s fruits
will wither on the vine. (footnote 2)
Supply chains will be broken
wars divide the lands
the earth itself be poisoned . .
hear now, and understand!

Now come, you shoppers of the world
Pause! Give thanks! and shout
till justice flows like rivers (footnote 3)
For that’s what I’m about.

footnote 1 : from the old ‘Clause 4’ of the Labour Party constitution, unfortunately long since dropped : “to secure for the producers by hand or brain the full fruits of their industry”

footnote 2 : see John 15 : 5 - 6; Mark 4 : 3 - 9; Mark 11 : 12 - 14, 20 - 21

footnote 3 : Amos 5 : 23 - 24