Don Donovan and The Pike River Twenty-nine

I wonder how many poems have been written about Pike River? I was moved to something Kiplingesque - the heroic style fits such tragedy.

THE TWENTY-NINE

From Kahurangi to South Westland

There’s a rolling wave of grief

You can feel it in the birdsong

In the flax spear and fern leaf

And it echoes in the depths of

The great Pike River mine

As it mourns the poignant loss of

        New Zealand’s Twenty-nine.

They were undistinguished toilers

In Man’s caverns; places strange

To us who’ve never quarried

In The Paparoa Range

Where the cryptic seams of black gold

Rise on high, and deep decline

Ever luring brave men onwards, men like

        Westland’s Twenty-nine.

Now their names will live forever

In the light of unsought fame

And they’ll join the ranks of heroes

Lost in Westland’s deadly game

They’ll meet the men of Dobson,

Brunner and the Strongman mine

And in history they’ll be known as

        The Pike River Twenty-nine.

© DON DONOVAN

donovan@ihug.co.nz