I hope to use this (and other poems to come) as part of a heritage project with youngsters. This particular poem will be used to inspire an exploration of the history of Horwich Loco Works. I would appreciate a bit of critical feedback before I unleash it on an unsuspecting public! Thanks.

 

The long, brick built workshop

Stands empty now

The full arched windows stare blankly

From an erecting shop

Shrouded in darkness

As time slips ever by

So decay and dereliction

Add their destructive beauty

To the scene

Only ghost trains

Are built here now

Hazy and indistinct spectres

Smoking, fiery Phantoms

Shades and shadows

Of memories from long ago

Echoes of a time and place

That some still remember

When a thousand men and more

Wrought iron and steel

To thunderous and furious life

When sparks flew

And funnels blew

And all was noise and heat and light

But even memories fade

Like sepia photographs

Of faces under broad brimmed hats

Rugged engineers

Posing with hammers and spanners

Building machines with strong hands

Faces stained with oil and pride

But all that was long ago

Today the bricks crumble

Nature stakes its claim

To empty sheds and offices

To fading signs

And distant noise

Of ghostly locomotives

Now destroyed