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TOOK AWAY OUR LIFE

by roovacrag 

Posted: 25 January 2004
Word Count: 74


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We lived in a village
no work just mines
coal was abundant
we grovelled the face.

No not on top
but underneath ground
couldn't eat real food
just water

Jam butties
dripping not ham
canary sings
sweet and loud.

Taken down the mines
to see if it survived
if it died
we knew we wouldn't survive

There was gasses deep below
They gave us a living
took away our life
took away our soul.






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Comments by other Members



Bobo at 18:43 on 26 January 2004  Report this post
Alice - this is a very moving piece of writing - such starkness. You've expressed the times well - where life is at once simpler and yet more easily expendable.

BoBo x

roovacrag at 20:58 on 26 January 2004  Report this post
Thank you,I was brought up in a village where there was a pit ,closed down years ago. might write another about the ghost in the pit. never saw her myself. Saw the crippled men though. Derbyshire is full of them. xxxxxxxx Alice

Poetic at 11:26 on 29 January 2004  Report this post
A sad state of affairs for the dwellers in the mines village and the miners themselves. Although this was a source of work and income, the health and emotional damage surpasses all else. How poignant.

Tez at 22:52 on 29 February 2004  Report this post
Alice,

Having lived in a mining town, Stanley In Co Durham in the 60s,I can emphasise with the deep feeling behind this poem.

I am not really good at poetry so not qualified to critique it properly but I know when something has got substance and this has.

I just know what Ilike and I like this.

Tez

TheGodfather at 01:35 on 11 January 2005  Report this post
Alice,

Great closing lines. Like so many jobs really.

They gave us a living
took away our life
took away our soul.

It's truly hard to make a living and still live. To find a job that you enjoy is worth everything.

Keep the writing coming.

TheGodfather


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