Striding steel sentries
Marching across the land.
Holding the nation's power lines
In rigid outstretched hands.
Littering lovely landscapes
They may cause a blot.
As they take the vital power
Through a lonely beauty spot.
Terrible towering totems
Causing folk to rage.
At these powerful symbols
Of the electronic age.
Mighty Metal monsters
That hikers love to hate.
If we didn't have them
Darkness would be our fate.
Author notes
Many a time whilst I have been out hiking I have come across these structures and been struck by their beauty and symmetry.
(They've also been useful for putting me back on track when lost once.)
Written June 6th, 2005
In a list
What did you think
Comments
1 - 29 of 29
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I haven't tried it, but I can imagine. --Ellis
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I've tried that. It's not much fun is it?
Jim -
Excellent Writing
And without them, rather than doing this I would simply be sitting on the porch watching the grass grow. --Ellis -
Thank you for your comment and generous applause.
The aliteration was the reason for the piece. I wanted to see if I could do it!
Jim S -
I love the alliteration you put on the first line of all the paragraphs
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Thanks for the comments. I'm glad you appreciate their uses and my few words.
Jim S -
Very insightful. They are almost beautiful the way they are displayed in the picture. And then your poem shows them for what they are, while reminding us what we wouldn't have if they didn't exist.
Your rhyme and rhythm is very nice.
Good write.
Peace. -
Thanks for the flattering comments and the applause. I'm glad you liked this piece.
Jim S -
yes
im not always in with rhyming but theres a real enjoyable flow here that anyone can appreciate, nice attention to detail keep it up
-adam -
Sorry Andrew,
This was not a poem about post modernism, love or a delight in electricity. It was primarily an exercise in aliteration with the secondary aim of attacking NIMBY {Not In My Back Yard} protesters who wanted all pylons removing and replacing with underground cables!!
Jim S -
Hi Doug,
I have no special remit for keeping Pylons or any particular form of power generation. It strikes me though that we will always need a central location to harness the power and some form of distribution system.
Local protestors were demanding the removal of overhead cables on aesthetic grounds (in the Yorkshire Dales) and replacing them with underground cables. This would be expensive, messy and more awkward to repair (in my opinion).
I wanted to do some aliterative work and chose this as my vehicle. -
Sorry Andrew,
This was not a poem about post modernism, love or a delight in electricity. It was primarily an exercise in aliteration with the secondary aim of attacking NIMBY {Not In My Back Yard} protesters who wanted all pylons removing and replacing with underground cables!!
Jim S -
Thanks for the comment Nimbus but you are somewhat in the dark.
The power is electricity (solar, hydro, nuclear, wind or wave) and the beauty spots refers to open countryside.
As for the aliteration that was actually my main focus when writing this piece.
Jim S -
Nice, whimsical look at our power hungry world, Jim. You like rhymes and do them well. I wonder, do we need these power lines if we become reliant on solar power, or hydrogen?
Good poem!
peace
doug
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I liked this rhyming poem, found the accompanying picture very symbolic and matching! I am bit confused about "As they take the vital power
Through a lonely beauty spot." Did ya mean all the power is coming from sun...though poetically may look good, reality is a small fraction of it! I shouldn't nit pick issues like this (GRIN)...This is very well written, those alliterations remind me of Ted Hughes, but then his purposes were different!
D
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This is a lovely poem that appreciates the delight electricity brings to the reader in this poem.I love
the word flow as help unveil the cl;ear picture of true
appreciation of the age of post modernism.GREAT JOB! -
This is a lovely poem that appreciates the delight electricity brings to the reader in this poem.I love
the word flow as help unveil the cl;ear picture of true
love to the reader all the way. -
thank you for reading and writing.
Jim S -
THIS IS A VERY UNIQUE POEM ANS SUBJECT TO WRITE ABOUT. YOU ARE RIGHT, WE DO NEED THEM!
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Thank you for your comment and your applause.
Jim S -
Superb! What an excellent and concise poem! I love the idea. Very original image to explore via poetry. Rhyme scheme is flawless and serves your vision flawlessly. I cannot leave without depositing my applause! Jon
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Thank you for your comments and your applause.
They are amazing structures and, at the time of writing, I had just been out walking and had been able to use them as routemarkers to avoid getting lost. Multi-purpose devices!
Jim S -
This is just wonderful. I am amazed that you are able to write about power lines in such an exquisite way.
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Hi,
Thanks for the comments and the pointers to more verse.
Without a waylease or equivalent it sounds like you have a good case but a questionable remedy. It could prove expensive for the power people.
I don't want to malign your author without evidence but a lot of people are jumping on the bandwagon and simply regurgitating old stuff. That means I have ten years to get my Waterloo book ready!
TTFN
Jim S -
I presume that means you amp going ohm. Can you still volt the gate?
We could do a whole coulomb of these.
Thanks for the comments and the applause
Jim S -
A very interesting update of the "Pylon poems" of Auden, spender et al in the 1930s. I have posted a poem here, "Beautiful" which is more or less pointing in the same direction.
You may be interested to know that as a layer I am acting for a client here in a case where the local authority put a line of pylons across her farmland but omitted to get any permit to do so!
Cheers, and congrats on another excellent poem!
I've just got a new book on Trafalgar ro review for the local paper - didn't know there was any more to be said about it, but we'll see.
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your poem gave me a real buzz, shockingly good write,you certainly pylon the style,so good you should charge,i amp going now,
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Thank you for your comment. I'm glad I hit the mark. Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder.
Jim S -
Brilliant
Jim,
Extrodinary! What you have done is to give other's a chance to see beauty in what most find to be a nusance! Who would imagine that something potentially ugly.. or what other's consider ugly, could hold such beauty?
~Michelle~
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