I started full time work when I was 25, the month that a local mine (Barony, Ayrshire) closed. My father worked at the mine for most of his working life until retiring a few years after the miners strike of the mid 80s. He like many miners, steelworkers, fitters and others based in the heavy industries of the 50s,60s,70s,80s lost his way after that period.

The A frame from the mine is now a heritage site which I ashamedly visited for the first time in 2020 and that visit inspired the words below.

Whatever we went through over the last few years, be it furlough, job loss, panic or our restrictive lives, give a thought for those men and women who lost jobs, camaraderie, sense of community, income and focus who weren’t treated with anything near the compassion or support they deserved. My father like many before him and after started work in the mining industry when he was 14. Now just imagine that for our kids. Let’s show some gratitude for what we have.

Just imagine 14.

Imagine the energy

Just imagine the energy it took,

To mine the energy it gave, To allow us to cook, Sustain and save

Imagine the mouths that were fed,

The pubs that were filled, Milk, meat and bread,

The lour of the yill.

Imagine the miles that were walked,

Underground and beyond, The conversations talked,

That brotherly bond.

Imagine the tons in the hutch,

Ripped from the earth, Carrying the can,

Expected from birth.

Imagine the props being cut,

The shafts being built, Grafting down and up,

To the hilt.

Imagine the dust inhaled,

The sweat dripped, Knuckles scraped and impaled,

The doubts being nipped.

Imagine the tumbling roar,

The din from the face, The gas from the floor,

Making it back to base

Imagine the shifts night and day,

Showering afresh, Awash with your pay,

An inevitable dusty sesh.

Imagine the jam on the piece

The sugary tea, The sweet elation, 

The energy, Imagine

Imagine the Energy- Poetcast

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R G Robb 2021