Aberfan Poem by Colin Ian Jeffery

Aberfan

Rating: 4.7


What greater grief
Anguish and despair
Than loss of precious children?

Weeks of heavy rain
Drenched mountainous coal-tip
Creating slurry of Black Death.
Ominous, forbidding, destroyer
Lurking hidden above the town
Threatening unwary primary school.

Children sitting at desks
Teachers supervising innocence
Minutes pass with lessons soon to end.
Avalanche of slurry gushes down
Black wave engulfing the school
Crushing, suffocating and burying.

There is a press picture - - soul searing
Policeman, helmet missing, covered in dust
Carrying dead child from the ruins.

Sunday, November 2, 2008
Topic(s) of this poem: children,deaths,grief
POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
On the morning of 21st October 1966,116 children and
28 adults died in a sea of slurry engulfing a school after
the collapse of a coal-tip in Aberfan, South Wales.
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Laurie Hill 22 January 2009

A very moving account of that awful day in Wales. Your words capture the sadness.......A very very moving poem

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Bob Blackwell 09 December 2008

Colin I remember this well, it was five o'clock on dark damp evening I had just finished work when I first heard. I remember the policeman too. A vivd description of a tragedy.

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Vaibhav Pandey 08 December 2008

I havent heard about the tradegy but can relate to it by your poetry. thanks for sharing.

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Historical poety that is very moving.

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James Roberts 26 November 2008

Very good I remember the Abervan disaster from when I was a child a very moving poem jim

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Jayne Davies 28 January 2022

I remember that day well x Thank you for sharing this wonderful tribute. I've wrote two poems on this called Why and recently one called That Day I Remember.

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Madathil Rajendran Nair 29 April 2015

Heart-rending tale told with utmost word discipline.

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Guy Lip-more 26 April 2014

I was just a kid at the time and lived about 8/9 miles away, I can just about recall talk of rescue workers. Yes a tragedy. another excellent write. I can almost feel the emotions of the tragedy in your words.

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Earth hath no remorse for the desecration of her undistubed crust What ignorant humans have damaged of her natural generosities, prophets, profiteers and activists, one and the same, will have their predictions and greed will surely become another Armageddon We write with heart filled tears for ink and all the while we not wipe dry the memory, Just what that is 'All Mighty' are we waiting for? ? ? Bravo Sir Colin Ian Jeffery, we must 'Deciple' our comaraderie of Bards and help save all life on this forsaken planet. Inspiring write by a great poet!

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Jessica Hepner 11 April 2009

My Dear Colin Ian Jeffery, Your poem literally sends chills down my spine and brings and tear to my eye. I feel as though I am actually seeing it all through my very own eyes...

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Colin Ian Jeffery

Colin Ian Jeffery

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