The Orgreave Stations Poems by William Hershaw and Images by Les McConnell

The Stations of the Cross are a rich source, and handled well here.

With words and images Christ is placed in the setting of Orgreave, one of the flash points of the Miners’ Strike.

This could have been clunky, but Hershaw and McConnell don’t force a political point down your throat, it comes as much from what is not said – and in that way carries greater power.

Les McConnell’s images give us a Christ who is a working man – not the soft skinned fantasy of some many Victorians that linger too long in our collective imagination.

The words of the final station…

After Hours: Fear No More

Based on Shakespeare’s Cymbeline

Fear no more the heat o the sun – Cymbeline, Shakespeare

All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. - Ecclesiastes 3:20

Fear no more the drop of the cage,

The crawl to the face, the din and the thrum.

Homeward you head with hard-won wage

Now your shift below is done,

When golden lads come from their shift,

To coal dust, ash, they surely drift.

Fear no more the frown of the boos,

No bully gaffer harms you now,

There is no fine, there is no loss,

Only one power to which you bow,

For wisdom, law, decree our kind,

Turns into ash, fades in the wind.

Fear no more the sudden flash,

Now the dreaded fall of stone,

Fear not the tomb door’s closing crash,

In darkness to be left alone.

All miners young, how much they graft,

Burn bright and flame then turn to ash.

But may your memory be well-known

And children learn about your days,

Your graves be green where grass is sown,

Your solidarity be praised,

May all your struggle now be past,

All souls like coal must turn to ash.