New Poem by David Wilders

Banking

The River Aire at Castleford

The environment, the elements, the shaping

The landscape, the life, the flora, the fauna, the valley

The man, the hunt, the forage, the fishing

The living, the family, the field, the growing,

the plough, the orchard

The farm

The crystal Aire, the homestead, the boundary

The invasion, the vicus, the fort

The track, the path, the ford, the crossing, the bridge

The connecting, the vessel, the voyage,

The journey, the transport, the trade,

The waterway, the canal, the cut, the lock,

The horse, the tow path, the rope, the Billy boys

The Aire and Calder Navigation

The Lord, the tycoon, the industrialist, the influx

The expansion, the extracting, the excavating,

The mining, the quarrying, the commerce,

The growth, the wealth, the town

The port, the anchorage, the sailors, the captains

the timber, the yard, the saw mill,

The dock,

The boat builder, the sail maker,

The nail maker, the rope maker,

The blacksmith,

The sloop, the keel, the barge,

The launch, the Miranda, the Lazy days


The Miller, the corn, the wheat, the oil,

The flow, the power,

The waterwheel, the grist,

The dust, the flour, the bagging, the loading,

The barge, the exportThe weir, the flowing, the speed, the foul, the debris The stink, the death, the absence, the chemicals,

The agitation, the stains, the foam


The Whitewood, the floods, the alluvium, the Mere The quarrying, the mixing, the slip, the blungers,

The press, the clay, the thrower, the wheel, the pot,

The stoneware, the blackware, the decorator,

The glost, the bottle kiln, the fire holes, the coal,

The heat, the sweat, the smoke, the chimneys,

The potteries


The layers, the clay, the shale,

The explosion, the scraping the raping,

The ginny, the mix, the press, the drying,

The wicket hole, the stacking, the fueling, the heat,

The baking, the kiln, the brick


The Redhill, the sand, the quarry, the tunnels, the track, the furnace, the heat, the crucible,

The molten, the blow pipe, the blowing, the rotating The swinging, the shape, the casting,

The brown, the green, the bottle

The chemist, the dyes, the pigments

The acids, the alkali, the Phosgene,

The hydrochloride, the mixing, the pharmaceutical

The hazard, the vapor, the stink, the tanks, the plant, The chimneys, the danger, the explosion, the death, The sadness

The shaft, the seams,

The Beeston, the Flockton, the darkness, the heat,

The dust, the stench, the coal face, the shovel, the strife, the hewing, the miner,

The danger, the conveying,

The cleaning, the basin, the tom pudding,

The transporting, the energy.

The environment, the management, the cleaning,

The detox, the conservation, the return, the life,

The otter, the kingfisher, the heron, the swan,

The salmon, the leaping, the pass, the fisherman,

The bridge, the rebirth, the ownership

David Wilders


September 2010