I Felt the Earth

I Felt the Earth There in the valley reaching for the sun Our younger days were such fun Though the struggle to be Was so much for me? The valley walls were so tall That I would fear they would fall Then bury me, it was so little that I did see As the sun did run its course The silence still echoes in my mind Where I had trod in younger times The valleys hole deep under ground Would give and take of those around It to me didn’t seem so clear As I was to young, and didn’t see Why they would do this for such as me Then laugh as their days sped by Sinking shafts of killing coal They would just each morning go To where I would ask in questions few As it was hard to speak to you Who slaved all of your day’s For such paltry sums Quality of life and then some They would take all these things away You did this For Me Even now in these modern days They do the same a different ways As we would still not know That under ground you would toil so Then later as time, did pass me to be A thinking man for all to see I would wonder at it all That why you should have been there at all From healthy folk to coughing wrecks It took its toll of fine young men This land that we loved so, and then again We loved it for it was home Fear not to turn up at the old people’s graves There to talk of those long gone days That left the greedy ones flying so high Though to little me and mine, we cry to be We had so little that had to go so far Ask your mother around to tea Talk over fences and laugh with me At the way of folks that err The life though hard was still there to see Now came the new age just for you and me Things were changed where I had grown I could not leave you there alone To strive to be good was all we could do At what things you now saw and knew In church yards this valley through I will still visit there to talk to you There to relate of the now times To tell of tales that you once knew I hope it sees your eternity through Deep under ground there stirs not a thing I see You Now Nothing now the mines have gone Just old memories now held in song Blackened faces coughing, choking shrouds Clouds of long past days held your ways For other folk you toiled away The sun that stretched the valley so Is brighter now than you did know The changing of the valleys ways Brought on in so many places Cannot replace your blackened faces That even now had so many graces Hear now, to the green grass you gave to me Gone are spoons to say I love you so Take me back I you implore To walk once again the valley floor Mind that hole my little dear It’s where the miners use to play The fear they had, has gone away My child look to the hills you will see Lumps and bumps graves of yesterday Which on green grass spills Over to cover mine droppings That took its toll, they said it couldn’t be Do not look you mustn’t see The changes of one type of poverty To this one place we hold so dear Gone are the mines but what’s this I hear There are new things to take their places Today I Cry No longer blackened, we’ve changed places Little boxes with electronic faces That sings your praise and makes you feel Yet where’s the money to pay the bills No matter that we are coming to The centuries end for you and me It’s the same now as it will always be My grown up child don’t look at me When I say, I would rather be Back there in days gone by, believe me Then if you catch me sometimes its fine Where you may see me cry for that time It’s not for the passing of my friends That all these warm tears descend Rolling then falling without end It’s for the future that we are told That will be better now that you are old Not so grown child of mine The poverty has just been refined There on the soil that I left behind Was as, and is always now Where the earth feels the same