Tuesday 5 June 2018

30 Years On



(For the 30th Anniversary of the National Coal Mining Museum of England)



There is a hole in Yorkshire,
And extraction of earth,
Of rock,
Of grit,
Of coal,
Of King Coal,
Of Yorkshire coal.
But the king was dethroned,
His subterranean palace
Thrown over,
Thrown open to the people,
Hurriers of their heritage,
Guided by miners
Hewing history
For telling tales:
“How many men work down a pit?
About half!”
Miners,
Making an exhibition of themselves,
Of their ways and wisdom and words
On tongues savoured with coal dust.

A score and ten
Since the men marched back
To carry their lamps down
Illuminating faces,
And facets
And fossils
So keen eyes,
The public eye,
 Can see
What might have been left buried,
Painting coal streaked portraits
Of how it was
For so long,
For three decades now
And winding on.

Hope came to Caphouse,
Democracy of memory
Curated
So this industry,
These lives lived
Above ground,
And below ground,
In absolute darkness,
In the absolution of light,
Are not lost
In grassed over spoil heaps of time past.

This hole in Yorkshire,
For the whole of Yorkshire,
For the whole of England…
This hole! This HOLE!
Is mine!


Dave Alton

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