Greenlane Poetry

Milennium

Millenium (4 Chimneys)



I know where we are
we are at the four chimneys
she would often say

Factory flues now stand out stark
on spoliated ground less dark
these were the water-meadows once
when vessels working on the Don
were held up here by weirs and shoals
access roads by halfpenny tolls

Farms gave way to open-cast
furnaces producing coke
mills producing high-grade steel
Vast walls of works dull days of smoke

Across the valley
swifts and swallows in the sky
can we see the birds

Yes the smelly settling pools bred flies
which spiralled over willow trees in clouds
rising swallows martins swifts

Ravenfield on New Year's Eve
vantage point for Vale of York
highest standing and Ridings
even to the Pennine Chain with beacons
waiting on milennium moment

When fires lit the sky
I'm glad I lived to see it
the blind woman said