Tracks.
Today folk amble along old mining tracks
Where once tin was dug and truck-hauled.
Inclines were handled by boys, blackened
In pit dust, scar-scored the young mauled
Overfull trucks while bal-maidens worked
Sorting rocks before loading, lovely young
Aproned lasses, locks close-capped skirted
Strict rules with sly girl-taunts at lads long
years back as truck-crews when tired sang
back teasing whispers with minimal sound.
Jibing as shovel struck rubble boyish slang
Raised laughter if fun-starved work allowed
Shifts were long and croustrest stop-timed.
Lines early pock-marked faces down shafts
Yet tho' silence now haunts tracks to mines
Some nights singing of children comes back.
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Author:
Fay Slimm. (
Offline) - Published: October 12th, 2020 03:58
- Category: Unclassified
- Views: 44
Offline)
Comments6
This has a special place in my heart ..
a perfectly poemed depiction of life down, in and around mines .. particularly as far as I am concerned, the old Cornish tin mines, now long redundant ...
My great Grandfather was a Captain of a Kernow tin mine for many years ... funny thing was, as a child I always thought he was a sea captain ....
Neville
Good write Fay.
Brilliant..... and with that lost sadness of things forgotten in time...........
BRIAN here - Good Evening FAY - Great reminisce - Before mechanistaio
any mining occupation - or recovery of metals from their Ores was dirty & backbreaking ! In the Lancashire Mills - as in Cornish Mines - wherever there is a mixure of Virile Lads & Lasses in the Workplace there will always be sexual banter ! Great Poem in a Great Shape - Thanks for sharing !
Blessings & Peace & Joy with Love
Angela - Brian - Smokey 💛💛💛
the work was so hard and dangerous down those mines and even though the mines are now gone the memories and the voices can still be heard within caring people's minds.
Andy
I don't think it's an exaggeration to say the Thatcher's era effectively killed off an entire self contained eco system for millions, a way of life that had sustained thousands of ancestral family lineages for centuries - ended abruptly in a matter of years, without any effort made to prepare those devastated communities,
still - slowly but surely they have overcome, while keeping alive the rich legacy of their history, with each shared story and empathetically dedicated writes like the one you have shared with us today Fay
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