Saturday, 14 November 2015

MY PREVIOUS TWO VISITS TO ELLISTOWN'S FOOTBALL GROUND...

The Hot Air Balloon, the Sunset and the Owl

Maybe it was the hot-air balloon,
‘The incident’, which slowed my progress
Northwards, along the M42 motorway,
Which made my frustration digress…

Or maybe it was the burning, deep-red sunset,
So incongruent, low in the sky,
Behind the dull, persistent autumn rain-bursts,
Beneath which Ellistown’s stadium lay awry…

Yet maybe it was the hooting, invisible owl,
Quite impertinent and I turned my head,
Spying nought but evening dampness in shadows,
Around ancient pits, where coal’s labour lay dead…

Pete Ray

September 2011

Ellistown on a wet September evening. Gelding Miners’ Welfare drew 3-3…






The Slag Heap and the Pit Wheel

Its presence was perilous, 
A reminder of what used to be
Slag, darkly surreal;
Such a voluminous mound, beneath bristling grass,
Peering down at the obsolete pit wheel...
My presence was frivolous,
A trespasser on what is now
Landscape; no trace
Of a precious ground, beneath grafting mass,
Pouring sweat at the grimy coal face...

Pete Ray
February 2013


Watching football at Ellistown, once part of a large Leicestershire coalfield...



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