Men of coal

By hedgehog1

Fri, 11 Feb 2022
  • 780 reads
7 comments
 

 

Miners live and die above a seam of coal

Where houses disgorge dark acrid smoke

Into the very veins of their humanity

Dry and bent from endless years of toil

Where every breath is patiently taken

Hardened men that ask for nothing

These weary broken bodies sleep soundly

Their very tomorrows will mirror their todays

 

Shadows radiate from overhead slag heaps

Treading their way on hoof worn tracks

Where bleating sheep sink their teeth

Into bent and bitter thistle clogged grass

They labour, dawn to dusk to live and die

Hewing black coal drams from mother earth

That sucks the very marrow from their bones

Feathering cash registers for their Masters

 

These mining men born lean and hungry

Toil in the cold steel confines of the mine

A bell rings another day of mining survival

Winding wheel cages rise two thousand feet

To disgorge them back into deep black night

A world of hypnotic nothing in a landscape

Where their lives are just a flickering fabric

On black window panes waiting for tomorrow

Certificate U
Poem

Comments

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Nice to see you back!

This seems so long ago, but not so very long really. And I suppose still so in some parts of the world.

There was often good cameraderie in all the weary harsh labour often, wasn't there – reflected in the male voice choirs? Rhiannon

 

Submitted by hedgehog1 on

Thank you so much for your welcome back comment!!

I was a working miner in the sixties so had first hand knowledge of the mining way of life before moving on to my new life in the MOD. I have fond memories of those brave and hard working men (and women) who worked for the NCB.

 

Submitted by hedgehog1 on

Thank you for your welcome back comment Rhiannon.

My poem reflects the harsh conditions those men (and women) endured, but, as you point out there was a release for some in the male voice chiors and the colliery brass bands. 

 

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Your excellent poem delves deep into the miner's dark dangerous, back-breaking toil

My thoughts are with the miners and their families in the Dombass region of Donetsk in Ukraine. They have a hard life.

Submitted by hedgehog1 on

Thank you for your comment Rachel. My thoughts and prayers are with all miners wherever they ply their trade in the world

 

Submitted by lenchenelf on

of the murk in landscape and lungs.

Best

Lxx

 

Submitted by hedgehog1 on

So well put Lenchenelf