Digging In
The hushed maelstrom of dissent
from a mountain forced
inside out like a sour stomach.
Numb under its crust.
Blind, homeless
and pocketed by picks
The moon explores
this new wound
Where water laps the bones
Where silence sets
in a never-ending echo.
Time Stack
You live a little
You die a little
On the Bersham Tip
I could see his dot
Sliding like Sundays
down the rills of spoil
The motorway hums
less in the evening
Same all the way through
Like my simple life
Flowers fight through cracks
This is not my Wales
Both poems first published in The Black Hole Poetry Anthology – A collection of poetry against opencast mining (CreateSpace Independent Publishing).
Winston Plowes is a word artist from Mytholmroyd, Calderdale interested in surrealism, all species of art, the magic of chance operations and the personalities of cheese. His life is a mission to discover how and why the currency of words makes us love, hide, laugh, cry or dance. He teaches pupils from yr1 to degree level and regularly performs at and organises festivals and events. He has adopted over twenty typewriters that follow him round the country. Recent publications include Telephones, Love Hearts & Jellyfish (Electric Press 2016) and Tales from the Tachograph with Gaia Holmes (Calder Valley Poetry 2017). http://www.winstonplowes.co.uk
Photograph of Bersham Colliery Bing Tip by John Haynes.
califragile.org 