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SEEING THE LIGHT

09-06-2008

Brums pylon

The north has the Angel of the North. The south are about to get a Giant Cow.......and Birmingham has an electricity pylon. Yes, Birmingham has an electricity pylon in Victoria Square. However, it wasn't long for a poem about this pylon came down the wires (excuse the pun)...from Balsall Heath's own poet laureate Brendan Hawthorne....

Seeing the light

Pylon power chords
Pile-on concepts
Of the unthinkable
Ringing out changes
Nothing incidental
Or accidental
Being played
Through gridlock menace
Image and
Product placement
Enormity and presence
Choices and priorities
Green fields and grey angles
The convenient switch
Lit up in lights
To spotlight costs
No trade
No deal
Fossil fuelled
Cooling towers
And ivory towers
Nothing static
All those experts
Conducting discussions
Laying out alternatives
On future emissions
Without omissions
From the epicentre
Of ring main roundabouts
And timescale thereabouts
The meter is running
With few pounds
Left in the bank
To wind in the slot
Before we’re all cut off
Leaving
Complacent consumers
Complaining
That short term tariffs
Are unacceptable
But the sleepless fact
Is that the final bill will
Be far worse
If we don’t wise up
To the thaw out
When ranging
Pole to pole with
No option on
Reversing polarity
Need positive action
Not negative reaction
As long as words
Are not lip service
As long as words
Are meaningful
Networked and
Not isolated
Switched on
And resourceful
Let the festival begin
Otherwise
This waste in time
This waste in opportunity
This chance to pass
This planet on
To future generations
Will be wasted
And conference hot air
Will simply add
To the effects
Of global warming
And the prospect of
Further exercises
In bureaucracy
Being held at
Birmingham-On-Sea

For the story behind it's erection see link here