"Who Stole the Mountain? Poem No. 14 in my series sof poem on the theme of LINES.

“Who Stole the Mountain?”.

Poem 14 on my Series of Poems based on the theme of “Lines”.

We have been staying in Llandudno.

There was an excursion to see the

Welsh National Slate Mines Museum.

We went through the Llanberis Pass

seeing the mighty Mount Snowdon.

After our arrival, we saw a brilliant video

called “Who Stole the Mountain”?

It was not the baking sun or wind and rain

but, the wealthy Landowners.

They employed the poor to rape the mountain

by digging, dynamiting or with their bare hands.

Risking their lives to make their owners wealthy.

We were taken into the Slate Splitting Shed

To see a demonstration by a man who had

The skills to split the slates by hand, he is

one of the few men who can do this very

skilled job, now tiles are made by machine.

He was so skillful, cutting and measuring by eye,

how to split the slabs into thin slate tiles, then by

a quick pencil line, fashion it into a beveled tile.

Still used for house, Church and Cathedrals roofs.

All done under the strict rules of Health and Safety.

No longer risking lives to produce slates but

to educate and inform the flocking tourists.