HERE ARE MEN'S HEARTS - POEM REVISITED FOR APRIL POEM A DAY - DAY 10

HERE ARE MEN’S HEARTS

their hands

ore-stained

or grimed

with coal

their eyes

that see in the dark

men's arms

raise the hammer

that strike the rock

that make earth bleed

that give us iron

that give us steel

that give us

this day

fired

in the iron

in the steel

in the coal

and the clay

here now, in decay

here, are men's hearts.

(Part of a longer poem I wrote May 25th 2006 for a Project I did with photographer Michael Poulter on the Florence Iron Ore Mine, Egremont, Cumbria - one of the mines my Dad worked down)