I Felt the Earth
There in the valley
That reached for the cloudy sun
Our younger days were fun
Though the struggle to be
Was so much for me?
The valley walls were so tall
That I would fear they would fall
Then bury me it was so little that I did see
As the sun did run its course
Across then down over yon way
The silence still echoes
Through my mind where people
Had trod in younger times
This land they turned year after year
It to me didn’t seem so clear
That they did it for me
The valleys hole deep under ground
Would give and take of those around
Then to this day I cannot see
Why they would do this for such as me
Sinking shafts of killing coal
They would just each morning go
To where I would ask in questions few
As it was hard to speak to you
Who slaved all of your days
For such paltry sums
Quality of life and then some
They would take all these things away
Even now in this modern day
They do the same to you
We would have fun
As we would not know
That under ground you would toil so
Then later as time did pass me to be
A thinking man for all to see
I would wonder at it all
That why you should have been at all
From healthy folk to coughing wrecks
It took its toll of fine young men
This land that we loved so
Fear not to turn up the old people’s graves
There to talk of those long gone days
That left the greedy ones high
Though to little me as only I
We had little to go too far
Ask your mother round to tea
Talk over fences laugh
At the way of folks that err
The life though hard was still there
Now came the new age
Where I had grown
I could not leave you there alone
To strive to be good
At what things you now do
In church yards this valley through
I will visit there to talk to you
As to relate of the now times
To tell of tales that you once knew
I hope it sees your eternity through
Deep under ground there stirs
Nothing now the mines have gone
Just old memories now held in song
Blackened faces coughing choking
Clouds of long past days your ways
For other folk you toiled away
The sun that stretched the valley so
Is brighter now than you did know
The changing of the valleys ways
Brought on in so many places
Cannot replace your blackened faces
That even now had so many graces
Hear now to the green grass
Gone are spoons to say I love you so
Take me back I you implore
To walk once again the valley floor
Mind that hole my little dear
It’s where the miners use to be
The fear they had has gone away
My child, look to the hills you will see
Lumps and bumps of yesterday
Which on the green grass spills
Over to cover mine droppings
That took its toll they said it couldn’t be
Do not look you mustn’t see
The changes of one type of poverty
To this one place we hold so dear
Gone are the mines but what’s this I hear
There are new things to take their places
Little boxes with electronic faces
That sings your praise and makes you feel
Yet where’s the money to pay the bills
No matter that we are coming to
The centuries end for you and me
It’s just the same now as then
My grown up child don’t look at me
When I say I would rather be
Back there in days gone by
Then if you catch me sometime
Where you may see me cry
It’s not for the passing of my friends
That all these warm tears descend
Rolling then falling without end
It’s for the future that we are told
That will be better now that you are old
Not so my grown child of mine
The poverty has just been refined
There on the soil that I left behind
Was as, and it is now
Where the earth feels the same
Yenti
