Has anyone written poetry about their locality? Historical or not
I've just written a Sonnet on the local Gibbet in Halifax West Yorkshire. It was a forerunner of the Guillotine. If the criminal escaped from the Gibbet during execution and reached the local border they would not be pursued further.
The pub The Running Man is build near the border on the council estate where my wife is from. In memory of this escape. It's a rough and ready estate pub, some of the locals have read my poem and like it. I think they like being described as vagabonds! A replica Gibbet is still on the site on Gibbet St.
'From Hell, Hull and Halifax,
good Lord deliver us'
This is an old Yorkshire saying regarding the Gibbets at Hull and Halifax
Running Man Sonnet
A sheep I stole to feed my whore's three
The Gibbet awaits from Halifax gaol
Orphaned scoundrel; God cannot save me
Can fate find a happy end to this tale?
As the blade falls I slip from the scaffold
Dodge the Sherrif and run for the Brook
Sixteen hounds I outran has been told
Vaulted the stream and death warrant forsook
Seven short years I delayed sentence unfair
I had to see my two beautious brides
Then I was betrayed by this wretched pair
So back on that Gibbet my neck resides
Now in my memory the Running Man stands
A Tavern for vagabonds in the badlands
Rob Edwards
From Hell, Hull and Halifax,
good Lord deliver us
Ladstone Rock Sonnet Traded to a wise woman at the age of five Learned herbal remedies and local tracts Alchemy and black folklore I memorise Brigantine Druids linked in spiritual pacts Mid September foraging for Blackedge Bonnet Caught by bastard Bailiff by Black Beech mound The Sick fuck I rebuff, from rape upon it Six paid raiders return to dog me down On the Kill Stone I'm fated for this life to leave this Adam's realm of bitter lies unclean Fly Witch fly the clods will cry, falling lost Figleaf The pious priest I curse, Black Death forseen. Ladstone Top, if I survive this Devils Drop The Bastards'll braise my bones 'til they pop https://www.calderdale.gov.uk/wtw/search/controlservlet?PageId=Detail&DocId=100240
I've written another local Sonnet about Ladstone Rock. Very local landmark where witches are thought to have thrown from, as is the theme of the Sonnet. The pics are my dog Peggy 🐕 loving looking over the precipice. And the 2nd is Cath my wife, Gail our cousin and best friend (scouser) and myself at the Rock today.