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Will George Poet



Rhymney Revisited


 


The bells of Rhymney are silent now


And the Chapels and Churches are still.


Down the valley the silence is heard


And the pubs are no longer filled.


 


Where are those voices of long ago;


The ones that cried out in turmoil?


Lost, like the bodies that have no hearts;


Buried like the villages that have no soul.


 


No longer the echo or answer given


to the ring of the ancient song.


No longer the peal of the sounding knell


of the messenger who called out for so long.


 


The spires kept their watch over the villages below.


They hailed of good news and of the bad;


Clearly they told all of those above and afar


of the births and deaths of the new and the old.


 


Children have grown up and forgotten


of the struggles that came before.


Why their parents seemed tired and worn out


and their lives seemed to be so severe.


 


War took its toll!


The bells rang back then long ago.


Miners and steelmen were the fabric;


the foundation of a great empire.


 


The wages they fought every inch for,


every penny was as important as every foot,


where land and property were dreams only,


when the main focus was clothing and food.


 


Life came at a heavy price;


Every moment was most dear.


Now wonders at the advance;


whether the most afar is so near?


 


The valley is silent now!


No longer a sense of community.


Selfish attitudes appear as the norm,


the neighbour is not so neighbourly.


 


Across the mountain the death knell sounded;


From Tredegar, Ebbw Vale or from Merthyr and Tonypandy;


In each valley that rose from Monmouth and Glamorgan


the sound of song is silent.


 


The bells no longer call out!


The valleys no longer belong


in the memories of its people


who are deaf to the land once strong.


 


Will George  © June 5, 2004