Poet of Pontypool entry 2016

My entry for the Poet of Pontypool 2016.  It was awarded a Highly Commended certificate :)

Streets of Pontypool

Tell me your stories, spirit of old

From your sepia photo that my hands hold.

Give me a glimpse of times that have been

A history I seek that your eyes have seen.

How I would love to wander where

Gas lights flicker in the dull evening air.

Every brick and stone with a tale to tell

Of triumph, achievement or personal hell.

What kind of people would I come to know?

If I walked along Pontypool's ancient roads.

Boys in flat caps lurking in doorways.

Ladies in bonnets riding in carriages.

Horses trotting on the dust filled streets

In the market the smells of hanging raw meat.

Traders bartering while wives buy supplies

For men returning from work in the mines.

Shops, pubs and houses, I'd visit them all

Then watch local singers at the Town Hall

Park House and gardens, I'd love to see

How it looked when inhabited by the Hanbury Leighs.

Busy salesmen who stop for a spell

Of hospitality at the Crown Hotel.

Then a few steps from there, just because I can

I'd visit the home of my great great gran.

Spirit of old, I stand in the spot

Where you were captured forever in this sepia shot.

Time divides us but I see all around

Through my eyes and yours our lovely old town.