Stones Know.

 

 

The Stones Know.

 

Strewn over seashore hard evidence of Alquifou mining
for coppery tin.
Trussed amid moss in tufty green sward lie hidden lost
keepsakes.
Forrays to deep-earthed hot-holes needed just candles
on heads and valour.

Long wooden ladders often wankled in unstable footholds
were dangerously thin.

Down the rashling
- - -__- - - - - -
would venture by 
- - - - - - - - - -
clogged foot or
- - -__- -- - -
plimsole if not
- - - - - - - -
too poorly clad 
- - - __- - -
with dire need.

Otherwise barefoot
which bettered men's 
grip on each rocky step
of mouldy wood to floor level.

Meal was a pasty with tumpy top
candled to warm or fresh-baked
tattie and bacon-fat onion wrapp
in floury packet was all some ate.

Besmutted by black end-croust was
dropped at feet of pit-ponies for crib.

No time to be lonely down there, yoiking a-plenty young
lasses wide-eyed the lads.
They laughed at a smidgen and cracked white smiles back
and forth across packs.
Trysts and tresses were forsayed as shorn or capped the
Bal Maidens sought catches.

A favovian wind meant moist homing
in shivery smicket to a tousled bothy
in fireside bathtub for swift de-slime
and a hot gruel drink before bedtime.

Tumbling around in dawn mist, next day's shift yawned
as they fratched.

Derelict now only the stones know how it was but those
feathery tufts of sea-grass growing alongside some old
silent mine-shaft still wave in respect to miners' ghosts.

N.B.
Alquifou = Cornish lead ore.
Yoiking = shouting in jest.
Forsayed = forbidden.
Favovian = west wind.
Smicket = a smock.
Fratch = a quarrel.

Author's Note

Although written a while back thought readers may enjoy a follow-on from the poem on mining posted yesterday - - hope you can decipher the use of colloquialism.

Reviews

[Chris Shaw]

Ah, the tin mines of Cornwall. You took me back to Poldark Fay. You certainly captured the spirit of how it was working the shifts in those conditions. Dark and dangerous. I particularly enjoyed the format of your lines. Like a step ladder leading me further into the daily routine. Your glossary was very helpful when it came to the colloquial language. Loved how you brought the lighter side, the playfulness between the lads and lassies into what must have been grim work. Your lines gave me very atmospheric imagery in this first class write. Well done. An accomplished write.

Chris

[Fay Slimm]

Many thanks Chris for your supportive review - those were hard times and the work was indeed grim. Pleased too that you noticed the ladder effect i tried to create...... my gratitude for yoru visit as always .

[barleygirl]

Thanks for pointing me to this poem, in conjunction with your other poem. I love reading about true-life lifestyles of the unimaginable & you've chosen something I've never seen written about, these children mining. You make it sound like a jolly pursuit, despite the toughness of the assignment, conveying the way kids make the best of a bad situation. I'm not quite sure, but I think you mean that only lads in the mine & lasses on the sidelines? (at first read, I thought you meant both were mining?) Good job creating ladder with typesetting to show descent step-by-step . . . again, good explanation of the barefoot aspect, which really makes a reader ponder that! Good use of dialect while still presenting writing that's clear to peruse easily (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

[Fay Slimm]

Sweet Margie a big thank you for your visit to Stones Know and so pleased you understood the dialect used as Cornish language was spoken more back then and those words I use are just an offshoot. As for the Bal Maidens ( Bal means MIne) - oh yes they were down mines too - they loaded ore onto carriages and the lads would have to pull the loads once the carts were out of pony-reach............. the women were used up top at grass level as sorters but young lasses went down there as did lads - - - tough times eh - - bless you for your lovely review......... snuggly hugs - - Fay

[jacob erin-cilberto]

and those stones last forever...always the mementos of the past, the mines, the working people who survived in the darkest of places....
i agree with Chris...the playfulness adds a bit of levity to this...even as the ghosts haunt.
j.

[Bryad Polis Valentino]

Forgive me, but this is to be classified as open-versed. It is hard to follow and needs a larger description. It makes a cool pattern on the screen I thought it was some tower and distracted me from the writing. A publisher wouldn't touch this as it takes too much page space. I had to put my phone in desktop mode just to see this and others wouldn't know how to do that. Go seek more practice.