Tag Archives: whysall

My poem “Coal” is up at The Drabble

I’m delighted to tell you that my poem “Coal”, which tells of my Grandad Whysall, is now up at The Drabble:

He told me of how coal can be split
to reveal the hoof prints of long buried deer
if you get the angle and the grain right

Of how, in the deepest mines
Darwin was proved each day
by the strike of a miners hammer

And how opening the coal opened him
drove him to library and Miners Institute
to learn, wonder and argue

His gentle voice, with its natural grace
led me into his world
to the child opening trap doors in constant dark

To the young man, passionate for justice
filled up with the joy of learning
all forged in dark coal.

For Wilfred Whysall, my paternal Grandfather (1909 – 1979), on his birthday.