Long Coal miner Poems

TIME IS LIKE A COSMIC RIVER			

Time is like a cosmic river running to a somewhere sea,
As wide as all existence, long as eternity.
Time to be or not to be, time either foe or friend. ...

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Blat , Blat
Sporadic gunfire firing back
Our way of life is under attack
And what I mean by that 
Is protect the Oil Refineries 
Protect Democracy freedom of speech 
Protect the Banks & Institutions 
Call the order...

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Under The Cover.
.
You can never ever
Tell a book by it’s cover
As I was later to discover
The Lady in the Nursing home
The old man across the way
All have a story to tell
Hidden away
.
Some people I’ve known...

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The teacher dies having made her small contribution
to the colonization of other planets by motivating
a boy who would otherwise be a coal miner to become
a rocket engineer.
        ...

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ONE PAIR OF HANDS
"Make it your ambition...to work with your hands".  1 Thessalonians 4:11

My dad was a coal miner,
Worked with his hands all day.
As evening came, he took time,
To fold those hands and pray.

A...

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Grandpa Francesco Proia,
from Caserta, Italia,
a clever stowaway 
in the bowels of the ship
bringing him to Ellis Island,
Feb. 4, 1905.
Gruff ways,
often snarling a guttural “Huh,”
a lack of English,
never-ending hand gestures,
made me fearful of him.
But awestruck I...

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day in the life of a coal miner 

in the darkness you hear them
their boots clumping along the cobbled stones
not dawn yet ...yet still they are on their way to work
young lads of 15 plus.

these...

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The coal miner descends
into the mine much like
his father and his father’s father
it’s his way of life.

Into the mine much like
the others, he goes into darkness
it’s his way of life
as they carve into mountains.

With the...

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There goes the water where we find all the fish
There goes the earth where we grow all the food
There goes an ideological wish
Another tenet of Darwin, misconstrued

China Syndrome
Melting and melting into the ground
China Syndrome
Burning and...

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Your vibrant smile
haunts me every now and then
Sashaying strut like a peacock
is how I remember you
How come I recall only good things about you?
In my present condition,
I'm morbidly disaffected
Clear blue skies look to be dull...

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Coal mines in my daddy's day, 
Were dug with strong hands and back
They got larger and deeper, 
As the lungs of the miners turned black

Cave-ins, fires and explosions,
Were my father’s daily fear.
But what choice has...

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In the hills of West Virginia, at a log house he called home,
Is where grandpa spent so many years, though other places he did roam.
He was a country man at heart, and seemed a man...

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A man with few fears.
A man willing to give for what he can receive.
Hard at work to earn his pay.
Trying to make a decent living for his family and he.
A heavy leather belt strapped firmly...

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A man with few fears.
A man willing to give for what he can receive.
Hard at work to earn his pay.
Trying to make a decent living for his family and he.
A heavy leather belt strapped firmly...

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From sun up to sun down, they worked all day,
but down in that hole they always slaved,
light from a lantern, is all they had,
and quitting time really made them glad.
Coal dust covered them from head...

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My gramps was a long-staunch Baptist of the sort S.B.C., 
Until his local congregation got beholden to the R.N.C. 

Gramps was a hoot – on a Friday he joined the K.K.K., 
Saturday, he quit because...

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