THE PIGEON MEN by Katrina Porteous 

Three men are leaning on the corrugated iron,
Staring out across the fields at the china blue
Stretch of sky beyond. They are waiting for something.
'Ye couldn't buy that view,'

Kit shakes his head. His son John reaches up on tiptoe,
A little apart, on the loft roof, watching. Their backs
Are turned to the handstitched patchwork of crees, sheds, fences,
The secret shacks

And small doors cobbled from sleepers and iron sheeting
Hauled up from underground. It was pit-work
That made them ache to be out here in the sunshine
Among the birds.

'See yon green fields? Yonder's where Horden pit was -
The biggest pit in Europe, that. Nowt there now. Gone.'
John bites his tab, says nothing; glares into the distance.
Then he throws up his white dove like a flag: 'Come on!' 

And suddenly the sky is full of pigeons.
Over Blackhills Dene and Paradise they fly -
Places that are names on the map now only:
Warren House, Whiteside,

And Clifton, Coxon, Cuba Streets - the vanished
Homes of vanished men who never dreamed
How much of themselves they nailed in the crees and gardens.
Home the birds stream,

While John, on the stock-loft roof, waves the frantic fantail.
'Come on!' he yells to the open sky: 'Howway!'
And the white wings beat at the end of his outstretched fingers,
As if he too was ready to fly away.

 

With kind permission of Katrina Porteous

This picture by Common Ground

Hover over it ...

From "Turning the Tide" by Keith Pattison (Photographer), Katrina Porteous (Poet), Robert Soden (Painter)
Published by Easington District Council, 2001 (Contact +44(0)191 527 0501 for copies)

An exhibition of the work for "Turning the Tide" which was held on the following dates:
5 April - 1 June 2003, Woodhorn Colliery Museum, Queen Elizabeth II Country Park, Ashington, Northumberland.
5 July - 31 August 2003, Hartlepool Art Gallery, Church Square, Hartlepool.

Future dates:
24 April - 6 June 2004, DLI Museum and Durham Art Gallery, Aykley Heads, Durham.

SEE ALSO AN EXCERPT FROM TONY LINTERMAN'S "SHED MANIFESTO"

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