Railway poetry

[hq1hitchin]

From the excellent 'Railway Eye' blog:

Night Mail (updated)

This is the Voyager crossing the Border
Standing room only, unless you pre order
Seating for the rich, corridors for the poor
The shop has sold out, the buffet no more
Revving up Beattock, claiming to be green
The wires above her, no pan to be seen
Birds turn their heads, as she approaches
Stare from the bushes, at her paltry 5 coaches

Cars in the fast lane can’t keep pace
Have comfortable seats and a lot more grace
Thro’ heather and weather but not fallen leaves
With approval ratings that no-one believes
Shoveling carbon over her shoulder
Nox, particulates, benzene, sulphur
Her weight fatigues the railway line
She’s ten minutes late but that’s on time

In the farm she passes no one wakes
All long gone to euro milk lakes
Dawn freshens but the toilet’s full
Snarling toward the urban sprawl
Scotland, independent nation
Soon an end to this vibration
Past rough estates and fast food chains
Dodging the stones from those with no brains

Call centres, offices, low cost homes
Tattooed teenagers with tweeting phones
Once steel and coal and engineering
Graffiti, flats and multi screening
Trainspotting here is not what it seems
But fuels the crime to pay for dreams
In the dark glens beside pale green sea lochs
Men read their e-mails

[giner]

Poignant. A new classic. Cheers, hq1.

[StevieG]

Here, 'ere, hq1.
Good stuff indeed. thanks for bringing it to us.

[52D]

excellent

[brsince78]

Auden's poem was brought up to date a few years ago (not by me I hasten to add) in response to the ending of TPO services:-

This is the Junk Mail crossing the border
Delivered by truck now, that’s the order
None of it wanted, all of it waste
All of it tinged with commercial distaste
Delivering catalogues all unsolicited
Names on the mailing list slyly elicited
“Yearly subscription” – that’s the refrain
“Take out a loan or a time-share in Spain”
Unwanted brochures shrouded in plastic
Thousands of leaflets bound by elastic

All come unbidden, a waste of a trip
Bound for the landfill, bound for the tip
All come by lorries pounding the highways
Blocking the ring road and clogging the by-ways
No more will the Night Mail arrive at the station
Derailed by the forces of privatisation

“Victorian problem – Victorian answer”?
That is an insult to the service they ran, sir
Imagine old Isambard taking this tack
“Sorry we’re late sir, leaves on the track”!
Now, gone is the romance
Gone is the snobbery
The twenty-first century’s Greatest Train Robbery
So while we’re asleep the postman is driving
And the profits of shareholders quietly thriving
To bring us material for which none of us asked
To redress the balance is how we are tasked
Here comes the postman rounding the block
Here comes the postman, here comes his knock
With quickening heart I leap from my bunk
“Anything interesting, dear?”
“Nothing, just junk!”

[giner]

Never was a huge fan of poetry, but these are great!

[Stirling O]

Hi everyone, some very interesting poetry contained within these pages.

For what it's worth heres a poem (what I can remember of it), that I composed for the school magazine back in the 60's. Unfortunately the magazine has been misplaced so the below is all I can remember. Here goes :

Over the footbridge and down to the yard
Past lines of engines, all oily and scarred
Past row upon row of quaint little tanks
Each eagerly waiting to turn round it's cranks.

[geofrancis]

My father a railwayman all his worling life,
used to sing me this song when I was a boy.

When your in a railway train
Never look out the window pane
I once did and my hat it blew away,
I took off to catch it like an idiotic guy,
My pants were tight and they busted
The passengers behind said
Oh what a little short shirt you have on
We'd better pull down the blind.

Cheers Geofrancis

[locojoe]

A parody of WH Auden's "Night Mail" by Richard Heeley

This is the train that's still out of order
Stuck on the track with no-one on board her
Passengers rich and passengers poor
Still all standing at the station door
Profits for the city, profits for the board
Promises broken, warnings ignored
Mothballed tests and dodgy tracks
Papering over the safety cracks
Once the pride of a once great nation
Crumbling away leaving you at the station
The Government says it's all going to be fine
But have the railways come to the end of the line?