Our Town

Gold cherry

By Ewan

Thu, 09 Feb 2023
  • 2067 reads
18 comments
 

 

 

The Top is up

and the Vale is down

Elland in the middle:

of no-great renown.

 

Our town, our town.

 

The fog hides sheep

and the sheep smell the dog

there’s a farm in the distance,

above the wood-burner smog.

 

Our town, our town.

 

The church stays empty

for the people don’t go

but the bells keep ringing:

to let Jesus know.

 

Our town, our town.

 

Concrete, brick-built

and Yorkshire Stone,

all the high-rise slums,

the penthouse-dwellers own.

 

Our town, our town.

 

Nail bars or cafês,

take your pick,

call at the charity shop,

to help out the sick.

 

Our town, our town.

 

Spend all the money,

invest in ourselves,

support a local business,

fill up the shelves.

 

Our town, our town.

 

It is our town,

we shape, it – us,

just think twice

before getting on the bus.

[audio here]

 

Certificate U
Poem
Gathered Flowers
Miscellaneous

Comments

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

at least you still have buses to think twice about - some of us don't!

 

Submitted by Ewan on

it's difficult here in Elland, do you use the impressive bus links to get to Halifax or Huddersfield and let the town centre atrophy still more, or do you support your local businesses and lose the bus services?
I'm sure it's the same story everywhere there's still any kind of bus-service.
When I first joined the RAF while learning Russian at North Luffenham, there were two buses a day to Oakham or Stamford, one in the morning and one in the evening. I couldn't drive.
There's probably no service at all now.

Author Page at the 'Zon
 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

It is difficult - where I live there's almost nothing except a few cheap tat shops, some charity shops and  of course many many betting shops, and recently there has been no reliable bus service either - I think it's a stand off between the local bus company who says it doesn't pay, and the local council who won't subsidise. So isolating for so many people.

 

Submitted by Ewan on

... at London: at TfL and free bus passes and, and, and... Levelling up is NOT just about the North. None of us are going to get it! :-D

Author Page at the 'Zon
 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

You're right. And everywhere else in europe too I think?

 

Submitted by Ewan on

from where we lived in Spain there were hourly buses (except siesta time, 1pm-4pm) to Coìn or Alhaurín El Grande, from the former there were connecting buses to Marbella and from the latter to Malaga, every day.  The bus stop was 100 yds away on the main road.  The last bus home from the small towns was 9pm. It's still the same according to friends. Cheap, too.

Author Page at the 'Zon
 

Submitted by D G Moody on

Yes, just like our St Ives - the real one, not the ponsy tourist trap; the only growth now is in charity shops - well written Ewan

Dougie Moody

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Raising questions about how our decisions can effect the livelihoods of others, make our communities thrive, alongside need for public investment, this thought provoking poem by Ewan is Facebook and Twitter Pick of the Day! Please do Share and Retweet if you can

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

I was wondering what happened to the Post Buses. As far as I can gather they all gave up in the end. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by littleditty on

 

 

Submitted by Ewan on

much appreciated here in the uplit slumlands...

Author Page at the 'Zon
 

Submitted by littleditty on

 

 

Submitted by Ewan on

https://www.abctales.com/blog/insertponceyfrenchnamehere/posting-your-an...

Author Page at the 'Zon
 

Submitted by littleditty on

I wrote a really long incoherent political comment here in the down south for you last night. Vanished. Like towns. It didn't make it..which I accepted as quite poetic enough...and also more evidence that nearly everything is broken and we are all screwed.

Remembered this happening before when on my phone? 

 

Submitted by littleditty on

(Will do a three dot desktop tester later.:) THanks

 

Submitted by Ed Crane on

Unlike low cost airlines you can't fill up buses and trains all day. Take the non profit ones away, you lose a lifeline.

To run it properly it has to be a balance, but politicians whatever their party colour are blind to balance.

you paint a sorry picture, Ewan.

 

Submitted by airyfairy on

I'm lucky where I live, the buses are - comparatively - good in the city (our city the size of a town) but they're going to be cut back, and the long range buses, essential now Transpennine trains are a pile of poo, are also going to be cut back, apparently. It costs a bloody fortune to live here, but at least there are things to spend your money on, if you've got it. 

Submitted by catherine poarch on

I clicked on this because I knew it would be a good one from you - and it is - and then found it was Elland which is where a long ago ancestor of mine was born, long before buses. He obviously walked to Rochdale instead. So many good observations. Down here in the West country, buses are being culled like badgers with tuberculosis!