Short Miners Poems

Inflation is out of control
Because miners can't sell their coal
Our earth's getting warmer
But Trump is a charmer
And knows we need a deeper hole...

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Fossil powered gas coal and crude
Got miners and some roughnecks screwed
With solar and wind
Their fate could be pinned
On working with fuel that's renewed...

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A thousand bells deep within me ring
Bell miners in unison sing

03 March 2023
A New Crystalline - Any Theme Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Tania Kitchin
Howmanysyllables used....

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For a widow's tear
Glimmers with sobs
At night's dawn

And sights of gold
Are made manifest by shouts
At miners' cave

Even so your actions
Bespeak the warmth
Your heart wields for me....

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A cursed black gem
Founded in excavation
Contains ancient jinx
Provoking the sudden death 
In miners that extracted gem











Example For Black Diamond Poetry Contest
8-2-2016...

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MINER’S RESOLUTION 

salt and sugar tweaks
and stretches health the poor way —
the heart’s rich with it

miner’s light in search of the
impurities running wild

1/10/2020...

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soon we shall all be free
of all upholstered costumes 
and all manners of miners' boots
that infect us with winter edema
and puff us up like flu troubled ostrich
to become angels again
In our cute adidas spikes ....

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The Bard stopped at Footscray
on the road to Ballarat
he was researching The Eureka Stockade
not Romeo and Juliet
he imagined the miners
manning the barricades
police bullets flying
hoisting The Southern Cross
and dying....

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My butt is just so damn big
10 Irish men could do a jig
5 truckers could park their rig
16 Miners could plan a dig
9 drummers could perform a gig
2 Elephants could take a swig
22 college kids could do their trig
If only I’d eat less like a pig!

*For Susan's self exaggeration contest :)...

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Foreheads smeared with ash,
pass me by on the street,
smudge them, who came 
from ground and ground they
will return.

Earth to Earth,
Ashes to Ashes,
Dust to Dust,

Ash me please for I repent,
sweat of brow, my skin like
a miners face, like a soldier, 
smudged to make him strong, 
to announce a fearsome fate....

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Caged in shadows
the canary breathes
amidst the clutter and din
of coal miners
who toil to extract
livelihoods
from veins underground
fortunes told
with its demise
too late for those who seek
fresh air and light
as families above ground
gather and wait
under a pale sun
for news
they feel in their veins
will come....

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Silent stands 
The winding gear 
The pithead sealed
Five and twenty year

Miners no longer toil
With honest dignity
Coal now comes
On boats across the sea

Silent stands 
The eerie monument
To stubborn arrogance
And bad judgement

Rust abounds
As far as you can see
The mining gone for good
That’s Scargill’s legacy...

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LEVI STRAUSE

Levi Strauss  
From Germany to New York 
Known as denim maker, 
literally "de Nimes" “from Nimes”
Wear tailor Jacob Davis?
Needed strong clothes not worn not holey
For miners purchased bolts of cloth
Corners pockets with metal rivets with that made them stronger 


8/17/18
written by James Edward Lee Sr.©2018...

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the mines  of death the miners knew,
black in the face the workers too,
too many years of underground,
sweat for the masters' dollar go round,
and death got paid his due,
good ol coal miner, you!
in blackness never found,
coal covered in the mound,
awaiting till,
resurrection,
dill ...

re: Black Diamond Night   Poet ~ Destroyer...

Don...

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Each man with his lunch box looks straight ahead
into the lens. It’s dawning, above ground. 
Why think about a sweetheart still a-bed?
Each man with his lunch box looks straight ahead.
They’re going down. Lost daylight like the dead
who never rise. Their pay is pick and pound.
Each man with his lunch box looks straight ahead
into the lens. It’s dawning – above ground....

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Listen to poem:

I was in grade five when we moved up north to a remote miners' town. 
Even my memories are dull. I escaped as soon as I could ~

                                           never looking back
                                           harsh inclement land
                                           nickel left behind



AP: Honorable Mention 2020

Posted on July 19, 2020...

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Good news Zoe, charges dropped drongo
Coppers had to stop, rules aren't laws 
Wrongs just that..Love you darl; thats where
I'm at, you did Ballarat an honour.' By being
True against the bother, you took issue.' with
The lies they dished on you, in the very same 
old town; where our miners faced some other
 clowns
Ballarat awaken now..' And back up Zoe
Who showed you how.!...

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Poem about Sudbury, Ontario, Canada


A skyline for a slag line.
A glowing melting rock.
An acid burning slag dump.
The miners on the clock!

The sunset meets the hill.
A seam of orange and fire.
Black smoke ascending from it.
The thickest form of mire.

A cauldron tipped and flowing.
A soup's heat puddle still.
The river red thin ribbons
and our love a slag dump spill....

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time elite
editions defeat
crawling under streets
railroading ghetto sheets
undercover mother heaps
coal from miners daughtes
diamonds up for societys slaughter
ghost poems favoring hollow words
each step is life turning as it learns
reasoning crushed beyond reason
time was time before each season
words ran rabid after rabbits
turtles snail stuck
track
in
habits
?...

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Poems about Sudbury, Ontario, Canada


There's a nickel big that I feel small.
A coin to wonder where you'd spend.
One broader than your shoulders.
One much to large to lend.

There's a nickel big in Sudbury.
A city home to miners.
Where mining for our nickel
is not meant for the whiners.

There's a nickel big from in the Earth.
A coin come from the heart.
Where money is for spending
and nickels for the art....

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Miners aplenty
Succumbed to their profession
Which left their families
In loss depression
 
The cause of their plight
As they went about their tasks
Was the airborne killer
Not protected by masks
 
The pneumatic air drill
Powerfully fed
For the dust it created
Left many miners dead
 
This genius of tool
To be life's taker
Earned it the nickname 
The Widow-maker



http://www.thehighlanderspoems.com/loss-3.php...

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High home summer hill

Straining, sucking, sitting

Staring, stopped and stick-

A pit-prop tight and gripped.

The trees across the valley

Much higher than he can go now.

I pant to reassure him

In time with his withered eyes.

His tongue, tombed gritty green

He’s faithful, though he’s fading

Bones in death-grey jumper

Where will he lead me next?


from 'Layer Cake' 2009
http://amzn.to/vXCEFa...

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Moonlight Come Dance With Me
There's no polyester in the trees
Nothing but mucous membrane
What's writing what's wrong
Pattern of the ole coal miners
Roughing it eating leftovers in diners
A brute abusive husband placed in marmalade
This is how bad men behave
Sun bright burning the heavens
Loaf of bread singles only seven
Nothing left on my dinner plate
Dine at my request

03/08/14
Written by James Edward Lee Sr
from anthology "Up Rising"...

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Black as the coal dust turned the faces
Of miners with pick-axes digging black gold
Black is beautiful we are constantly told,
And it is…regardless of skin-conscious races.

Black is the outline of cel frames unpainted
Before the artist fills in the blank spaces,
Before the reality of the light embraces
Purity of the soul will persist untainted. 


written August 26, 2021
for "The Color Black" Poetry Contest
sponsored by Chantelle Anne Cooke...

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