30 Years On

(For the 30^th 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