Voices in the Coalshed: Counting Questions

National Poetry Day is the biggest mass celebration of poetry in the UK, the theme for Thursday 3 October 2024 is ‘Counting’. Create a poem on coal mining and counting, use our fact sheet or Dave’s poem for some creative inspiration.

Fact Sheet: Coal Mining and Counting Fact Sheet

Counting Questions by Volunteer Dave

How many kibbles of coal did it take

To fire the engines of dramatic change?

Just who might be called upon to arrange

A measurement of all the plumes of smoke

Belched by chimneys tall and chimneys small?

Where are the accounts of lives lived and lost

To calculate an acceptable cost

Considering consequences of coal?

Can humankind reckon on changing its ways

And so stop the thermometer soaring?

Progress has its price; there’s no ignoring

Rising seas! Wild fires! Floods! They brook no delay.

Pressure for a worldwide shift is mounting,

Accumulating effects and counting.