This poem was written by Gloria Dales.
HS2 – The Choice, which Growth
As man and earth face future choices,
We must listen to seven billion voices,
There are two routes that we can take,
One to reap, or one to break,
Is it money that supplies our need,
Or our land that thrives with scattered seed?
Will nature keep us future bound,
Assuring us with prolific ground?
For without green land our future’s bleak,
Temptation led to fortune seek,
The wealth that grows is as a vine,
Entwining, spreading over time,
Tendrils searching every space,
That’s been taken by the human race,
The vine of urban spread unfurls,
A future for our boys and girls,
What future is it that we pass?
One of concrete or one of grass?
A concrete future fed by fools,
Or a greener future led by rules,
Offices, factories, homes expand,
As urban sprawl floods overland,
Connections by whatever fare,
Get faster, shorter, hasten there,
To where? You enquire, wherever there lies,
Sky-scraping buildings all filling the skies,
Where people can gather to earn vast amounts,
For settling loans, deals and credit accounts,
If we take the fast route, fill in all the spaces,
There’ll be no resources from natural places,
No fields for our food growth, or rivers to quench,
We’ll suffer the measures of human made stench,
Green views cast from memory, no forests remain,
To turn what we breathe out, into fresh air again,
Too many people, will hasten demise,
So spreading fast outwards is truly unwise.
Some voices are singing a song of lament,
While others are dancing at the choice of cement,
Some weep for our country, its soul and its health,
While others still gamble our future on wealth,
As man and earth face future choices,
We must listen to seven billion voices,
Hear what they say, and act to preserve,
The earth and its people, as a future reserve.
Kind regards,
Gloria Dales
18th January, 2012
The High Speed Train. 10.1 2012.
Today we were told of things that are new
We are at last to have the H.S 2,
No matter the cost of this new Train,
Money for this will be found once again.
Bridges are crumbling, they are so old,
Disasters waiting as my tale unfolds,
Motorways closed as repairs are done,
‘Tis the HS2 where the money has gone.
Our roads are neglected and have been for years,
Many are the ‘pot-holes’ that cause many tears,
For money is needed for the High Speed Train,
Never for Roads to have money again.
People’s homes that stand in the way,
Will be demolished, for those folks have no say.
All to save those thirty minutes of travel,
But there is more as my tales unravel.
Lights not lit in the dark of night,
To save more money, yet it isn’t right
For in the dimness it is hard to see,
The hazards that are waiting for you and me.
Hard shoulders on Motorways into use have come,
No widening of motorways will now ever be done,
Maybe nothing on our roads will e’re be the same
But Hey! We are to have the High Speed Train.
The cost from each house-hold, so we are told
Will be a thousand pounds whether young or old,
Yet perhaps none of us can afford to pay,
But we have never yet been allowed a say.
Not one High Speed train into Birmingham City,
Time saved on the Journey, will be lost, ‘tis a pity
The half-hour saved will be needed however,
Through another mode of travel, not so clever.
Whose great idea was this big spend on Trains?
That many people travel on just now and again?
Our Politicians never said the words to me or you,
That our sovereign Government have to obey the EU?
Anne Palmer