Elemental

I spent a few days on the Isle of Man this week. I'd never been before, so it was all new territory to explore and the weather was fabulous - more like June than April. As part of my grand tour (if the traversing of such a small island can be called that with any justification), I visited the stunning Laxey Valley with its imposing wheel, which I'd only ever glimpsed as a graphic on the titles to the local BBC Northwest News programme.

Laxey housed a mining community in the 18th and 19th centuries, with two significant shafts sunk nearly half a mile deep into large veins of ore. The elements being mined by a workforce of 1,000 men were huge quantities of zinc (a fifth of the UK's production), large amounts of lead and substantial copper deposits. By the mid-1870s the Great Laxey Mine was one of the most successful metal mines in Britain and production continued right up until its eventual closure in 1929.

The major problem with deep mines was flooding, so the Laxey Wheel, actually known as 'Lady Isabella' was designed by Manx engineer Robert Casement to pump water out of the mineshafts. It is the world's biggest water-wheel with a diameter of over 22 metres and when it was on active duty it drove the pump-rods which forced water out of the mines.

Nowadays this huge wheel is preserved as a heritage site and looks like something out of a 1950s science-fiction film-set (see the photograph below).

So there you have it, my take on the elemental - both in terms of the sheer scale of the device and the ultimate purpose it served, helping to extract elements from deep in the lode.

To accompany it, here is a piece of elemental nonsense which I formulated at the recent Pop Art/Collage poetry workshop at the Grundy Art Gallery - phrases re-assembled at (seeming) random from a tiered collage we created by mining magazines for interesting words, phrases and images. I think it works...

Elemental, my idea...
A rebel point of view,
you've got it all wrong.
Space is just the beginning...
content within context,
the new season iconic.
Your favourite escape
doesn't have to be
a faraway place.
Blingo!
Departure...
kick it, push it,
night and day;
eat, sleep and die
intrinsic dialogue,
mounting ethereal.
Angry Nepalese sunflower god,
a Faraday grace,
ambiguous mad genius
packing serious firepower,
think killers don't know you?
Get a facelift!
London films while Asia frustrates.
Hit the off switch.


Thanks for reading. Have a good week, S :-)

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More precious than metal ....

It makes me laugh how only certain metals are deemed "precious". In an age of technology and industry, ALL metals are precious, we would be lost without them. There is a vast amount of Silver used in the manufacture of day to day gadgets, usually on microchips. Some metals may be more abundant than others, but at the rate it is being mined, even they will become scarce. Obviously, we have been extracting and mining since the Bronze Age, but how long will it last? Thank goodness for recycling!

I realised this week exactly how precious one particular piece of metal is to me and how I miss wearing it. For some reason my fingers are allergic to wearing gold and as a consequence I was unable to wear my engagement and wedding rings for much of the time while my husband was alive. These days, they hang on a chain which I wear on special occasions. I can't wear it every day, as it gets tangled in my hair. The old adage is true .... "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone!". My marriage meant so much to me. I know many people don't see the need these days, perhaps thinking "Why bother? It's only a piece of paper!". But to me, it's more than that. It was our way of declaring and showing the world (and each other) that we were completely committed to the other, 'til death do us part.

So with that in mind, I wrote this weeks' poem. Thinking back to how hard my Hubby worked to save enough money to buy me an engagement ring.


More Precious Than Metal ....

Chipping away at the sheer rockface
of his life
he grafts
day in day out.
Tracing the seams
which will bring him fortune
more precious than metal,
but that of security,
love, family.
Money hard earned
Striven for in earnest
One metal exchanged for another,
composite for pure ore,
coins for a gold ring,
the latter bringing a more satisfying reward.
It's a dead-end dirty job,
but he's more than happy to do it.
His prize? - That smile,
the joy of being with the one he loves
when she says "Yes!"
The circle of the band,
representing infinity,
a love to last forever 
and continuance of mankind.
A precious piece of metal after all!


I hope that makes sense. My brain is rather befuddled this week. ;-)

Thanks for reading. x

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