Black Taff – FreshTaff

Cherry

By Rhiannonw

Thu, 12 Sep 2019
  • 3014 reads
14 comments
 

early 1980s

On the bridge high over the river Taff
a little girl drops her hankie, by mistake –
down, down – it floats ahead
(no Pooh-sticks competition this)
– white on the black, black water.

The mines are closing,
nostalgia over the camaraderie
of sharing in sweat and labour,
memories of the welcome work and income,
the fuel for industry and home-fires warmth,
but relief of release from the danger,
and end of waste-dust, slag-heaps:
clean-up begins
of land and river,

2009
Salmon returning,
International Flyfishing competition hosted at Merthyr.
In the centre of Cardiff
with astonishment some watch
a cormorant dive and emerge
wth a four-foot eel:
for twenty minutes they fought,
the eel wrapping itself around
the bird’s neck, and being dropped,
four times, and retrieved,
and eventually, the bird swallowing it whole -
a bulge as it went down its neck!

 

Certificate U
Poem
Nature
Nature

Comments

Submitted by Tom Brown on

In 1983 the river was being cleaned they said the salmon had come all the way up back in the Thames again up to London. It was a big story. How is it now? Please excuse me Rhiannon I 'm not sure about the Taff? Even a fly fishing competition?

That year there was a lot of sunshine people were lying around the parks sunbathing. A strange sight to an South-African schoolboy! The story of a cormorant swallowing a four foot eel is a bit far-fetched.

All the best! Tom Brown

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Hi, Tom, the Taff is the river that leads through the South Wales valleys that were high in coal-mining production until the 70s/80s, down to the sea at Cardiff. I don't know about salmon on the Thames, but that river is much healthier now than a number of years ago I think.

The story of the handkerchief is true. The story of the cormorant though strange does seem to be true, as I read it in two sources, and one was BBC news. It linked in my mind with my returning to the area of the handkerchief incident at about that time, when visiting my sister, and being astonished to see a cormorant. This was  just outside Cardiff, and showed me how tranformed the river had become.

I gather you were visiting London in the 80s. Thanks for your read and comment. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Tom Brown on

Yes Rhiannon I attended the international youth science fortnight in London in 1983 I could attend because I had a top place in our National Science Olympiad. The next year I achieved an even higher place but was unable to attend again.

The local medical doctors were very generous with quite large donations, there were two of our teachers who especially went to trouble fund raising. My school friends were incredibly kind and also clubbed in and helped with pocket money.

Today I would have done things differently I was almost half delinquent those days we were not rich my dad drank a lot, I had more rather of a mis-spent youth. Rebel without a cause. Yesterday's hero.

“Wisdom is sold in the desolate market where none can come to buy.”

I enjoy your spiritual poems and the hymns a lot.

Keep well Rhianon! Tom Brown

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Wisdom calls out (says Proverbs), but so many could come, but won't! How often is God patient with those young rebels struggling with frustration and family difficulties!

Good to hear of friends and others who supported you in having that experience.

Thank you for your appreciation. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

Hi Rhiannon,

that bit about the cormorant catching the four-foot eel must have been quite a gripping moment. I never realized there were salmon in the river Taff. It's amazing how many different speicies are surviving in our rivers now, though I'm not sure about the river avon in Bristol.

This is an informative poem that I very much enjoyed reading.

Jenny.

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thank you, Jenny. The cleaning of some of our industrail rivers has been quite amazing, and a joy to return to a place where we had the black watersso clearly revealed, and find comorants and realise the repopulation of fish and birds now that the water was running clear. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

How lovely to hear that the countryside is healing from the scars of its industrial history - there are many similar stories from the north of England. I hope the economy has regenerated itself alongside the river.

As a child in the 1960s I remember being told there were so many chemicals in the Thames that you could develop photos in it, but yes, I believe it's much cleaner now

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thank you, Insert. It is good to celebrate effort and renewal. Thank you for the cherries too. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

What a brilliant contrast poem, dark to light!

Did you hear recently that the Loch Ness Monster might well have been eels that grew extra big in ideal (!) conditions? Eels seem scarily strange, as if coming from a distant time, so to have one, so big it must have been healthy for a while, caught by the cormorant is a wonderful thing! We saw a seagull struggling with a large crab once, and get it down whole eventually, not slippery like an eel!

The thought of a real handkerchief too, sets the first poem in the past - when little I had proper hankies, but nowadays just use kitchen towel. I bet hankies are better for the environment though?

A lovely hopeful poem full of interest. I looked up the eel story, too. I bet that cormorant didn't need to eat for a week, after!

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thank you, Di. So glad you found it so interesting and contrasting. The handkerchief incident has always stayed so vividly in my mind, and coming across that so amusing cormorant story from the time when the birds and fish were back, made an interesting contrast. I don't feel that I've ever seen eels.

Yes, I suppose real handkechiefs again would be probably good, like real nappies! though we don't use so many of them. A bit of a fag to wash though! My husband still uses real hankies, and at least one son, maybe it's harder for woment to change back?! Some men don't like the feel of tissues, a bit rough. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

Good to hear there is some healing of the natural world.

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thank you, that's what I thought! Rhiannon

 

Submitted by jeand on

Hi Rhiannon

 

As always I enjoyed reading your work. Does it come easily to you, or do you spend ages thinking of the right word and phrase, and how to break the lines, etc.

Jean

Jean Day

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thanks, Jean. I think it varies. Some pieces do come quite quickly, some take a long time of tweaking. It's deciding on the content to include first of course, and then how to present it, whether in metred, and rhymed form, or whether more freely, but that does take thought and tweaking to make it flow and avoid ambiguity or unhelpful wordiness! And all the time thinking of what content should be there. Rhiannon