The following poems were written by students at The Coseley School when Ian conducted a poetry workshop there in support of Black Country Day along with Councillor Pete Lowe;
4 Million years
Over 4 million years ago
In a Black Country meadow
Below the very old ground
Belonged years of multitude
Fossils never found.
Above the sea
We call the ground
And above the ground are the flowers
Not any old flowers
A meadow full of
The wildest finest blossoms.
Aimah. 8.1.
100 Metres
The Black Country
The Black Country
Hundreds of metres below the grounds
Hidden under grassy terrain
Are a multitude of small,
fist sized rocks
A swathe of meadow full of
The finest wild flowers
Bordered by a mountain of limestone
Which reach back 400 million years
The air is full of a multitude
Of insects, bees, butterflies
The Black Country
Our Black Country.
Arousa Rabbani.
A Black Country Poem
Black is all around
Black is all I can see
Here there is no sound
Here there is only me.
Amaan Azhar.
A Street
A Street waved like a river
And the houses wake
Like an old train falling
From her track.
The houses are so old
Sand without colour
And it looks like you’re standing
In a strange world.
The women wear old colourful cotton
Give them beautiful colour and the Dudley Castle.
Make the people proud
Because it is beautiful on colourful hills.
The Dudley Castle animal’s noise
Like an airplane touch the sky
And at the night time at Dudley Castle
Light like moon and sun shining
At the time the canal.
Sufiya Asif.
Acrostic Poem
BÂ Â lack Country
LÂ Â inked to Coal
AÂ Â lso black gold
CÂ Â arrying coal from 100 feet below
KÂ Â nowing below my feet is precious coal.
CÂ Â atching a pinch of light through the ground
OÂ Â nwards we go, so low
UÂ Â sing your time to find coal
NÂ Â aming those who helped
TÂ Â rying to find as much as you can
RÂ Â eading stories from time ago
YÂ Â our families dug coal from as long as we know.
Nell Tustin  7.2.
Always working
BÂ Â lack Country
LÂ Â imestone
AÂ Â lways working hard
CÂ Â oal
KÂ Â nowledge in the rocks
CÂ Â oldfield
OÂ Â ldbury Oakworks
UÂ Â nder the ground
NÂ Â ever sleeping in the rocks
TÂ Â rains thud and hiss
RÂ Â eally deep beneath the ground
YÂ Â ours and mine the Black Country.
Umay.
Amazing
The Black Country is amazing
The Black Country is Black
It’s wonderful like a wonderland
And beautiful like dry land.
The Black Country houses are tall
But I call them cool
The houses are high
And I call them Ties.
The Black Country sun is bright
Just like the moon at night
The air is black
Like a curse from the past.
It’s there something black
Let me go closer
Oh, it’s black coal
And I feel like it’s staring through my soul.
I’m at someone’s house for a day
And they say “I want you to stayâ€.
I could hear a baby
I mean a babie and it’s crying
Ooops again, I mean It’s blartin!!
Leena Ali  7.5.
Â
Among the Flowers
Be careful where you tread
Among the flowers
Hidden in the grassy terrain
Is a place where deceased animal lay
Which people call fossils
Whilst drinking a bottle.
Needless to say
The hill was once at the bottom
Of the sea and roughly
428 million years ago
When boys wore dickey bows
Looking sideways at the Dudley beach
Which is ours to preach.
The black country is know
For its glass
But we never forget the time
We had to wear masks
Save us from the fog
Save us from the smog
That choked our loved ones lungs.
Holly Harper.
Ancient Gold
Dark like coal, the ancient black gold
Is what we see in the Black Country.
Beautiful, unusual and unique
It is more than meets the eye
Ruby red during the night
But smoky black again.
Brilliant sights Loud sounds
A summer haze of inky black waste blinding our gaze
Deserted and unwanted houses remain
Bricks fallen down to the town’s grave
But remains in our heart
The love and passion for our place.
200 years been still loved and respected
Once hidden and unseen
But now inviting and expected.
Littered with people
Working hard in life
Working underground in mines.
Black country is yours
Black country is mine
Together we bond to urge our town
Along to mourn the souls
Who made the country who it is and who it was.
Let the future bring our town to peace
And hope our flag will ever fly.
Zara Batool.
Ay it.
The Black Country is amazing ay it?
The streets are quite desolate
Houses big and tall
Windows open everywhere
People playing out
Having nice times.
Tower Street
You can see Dudley Castle
Hills trees everything else
I love Dudley Castle. So cool
It’s really really tall.
Paths are rocky
Roads are smooth
They look like coal
They have no cars
They look like mars
The coal is fossilised trees
That’s cool as well.
Black Country is a nice place to stay
Long long road houses
Filling up the streets.
Cool streets
I must be a fool, it hasn’t any treats.
Elle Russell.
Beauty and power
Arising from the furnaces
The stench of burning rocks
Black gas filling the air
Filling it with noxious fumes.
But out of the fire steel was built
Unbreakable yet glistening
To think this came from rocks
Nature always recycling.
And for the fossils deep in the earth
Death creating energy
This would be stored
Deep deep within.
Yet even with all this power
The landscape is unchained
Beautiful meadows grow
This is, the Black Country.
Edward Symonds.
Beginnings
Black country, we began from coal
Our pride belongs in our soul
Below our feet under the ground
Are the rocks that made us.
As the chains are churning
In the dirty mines
There is black all around
Everywhere I go.
Black in the day
Red in the nights
Black cloudy smoke,
Rises the air.
Choking on the air
Full of black
No birds around
If they were, they’d be dead.
Men as strong as the chains
Always linked together,
The coal and smoke
Choking its’ victims
As dark as the dead.
Jack Carter.
Beneath the grassy terrain
Hidden beneath the flowers
Rocks containing mysteries
Mysteries from the past.
Zoya Ahktar.
Birds
No birds, just darkness
Black all around
Chains are being made
Churning sounds.
Cottages swallowed up.
Iqra Anam.
Black as Night
Black as night
Living with the fossils
All is dark at day
Created all the coal
Kings and Queens use for warmth.
Coal for everyone not for just royal
Our produce is the revolution
Using mines we get ores
Now to smelt to get the valuables
To sell, to keep, to make into things
Raging smoke pours out of the blacksmiths chimneys
You will benefit from the black country ways.
William Dowler.
Black Black Black
Black, Black, Black
Just like the smoky day
White, white, white
Just like the glass cone
Red, red, red
Just like the blazing night.
Chains of steel
Made from heat
Coal burns bright
In the red night
Glass gets made
From heated breath
This is how everything is made.
Down in the mines
Is where you find coal
Deep deep down
Here is a black heart.
Shahzar Ahmed.
Black Country Poem
B lack
L iving
A ncient
C ountry
K ingdom
C hains
O ceans
U sed mines
N ow we are civilised
T rains
R ipple beds
Y am yam.
Tom P.
Black Gold
Coal, the black gold
That fuelled industry
The natural dead flat
If often broken by high hills
Of cinders and spoil
from the miners.
Steam engines thud and hiss
Long chains clank
A perpetual twilight reigns
The land by day
And a fiery glow
Lights up the dark landscape.
Owen Brevitt.
Blackheath.
Blackheath
Limestone
Ass
Could
Known for mining riches.
Coal
Oldbury
Undo
Nah
Tekkin
Ran
Yuh yeah man.
Ben Silk  7.2.
Blooms
Underneath the flower blooms
Abundance of fossilised shells
Lay still for millions of years
Discoveries approaching.
Yet, far away
Burning fires
Creating fires
Above the coal.
Katie Huffer.
 Boom!
Boom, crash bang!
Down falls the remains
Of this wonderful paradise
Hearts are last in the thought
Of the mines being broken.
This is a never ending war
People risk their lives for power
The world
It must stop
Our power is from energy.
Black soot scattered everywhere
Its pitch black, one light coming
From a gas canister
There is no turning back
It’s what we chose to do
And it will stay as our job.
As time went on the mines
Have changed into a paradise of the past
Fossils created on the floor
To symbolise the Black Country
As it was in the 1800’s
That’s what makes it special
To the local community.
Amy Butcher  7.2.
Candle and Kitchen
Black Country has history
Loads of fossils
A swathe of meadows
Candles for light
Kitchen stove
Danish Hussain 7.2.
Centuries Rocks
The Black Country is ancient
The Black Country is well known
The Black Country’s name
Came from Black coal.
Found beneath our feet
For over a century
Comes rock and black coal
Which represent the Black Country.
Covered in black smoke,
The sky feels lonely
This has been tradition
For nearly 200 years.
Many people dug for minerals
Many people dug for fame
Many just wanted help
But some only for self-gain.
The Black Country is great
The Black Country is positive
The Black Country is special
The Black Country deserves a very high rate.
Sana Ambreen.
Coal Country
Coal country,
Black like coal
It’s getting out of control
Too much rain
Is too much pain.
Loads of hills
Too many bills
Always grey skies,
But the black country never lies.
But, we love this country
Even though it has a black sea
We’re here to stay
Even if we have to pay.
Lewis Brookes.
Â
Coal Faces.
B  elow the ground 40 – 50 yards
LÂ Â ots of pollution in the air
AÂ Â ll there was were destroyed country sides
CÂ Â oal in faces and all is dark.
KÂ Â nown as black gold instead of coal.
CÂ Â ould have been invented to work cogs
OÂ Â ut under the fields at night fall
UÂ Â ltimate pain in our muscles
NÂ Â ew revolution of the British Empire
TÂ Â oppling houses because of mining
RÂ Â eaching below for their goal
YÂ Â ou should be proud of what they have done.
Maaria Azad.  7.2.
Coals
Coal runs thick, smokes the air and rains dead
Walk the whole street
Oss by side carrying load
Pick axe in hand coal on shirts
Mine shifts erupt with the blast
Last light
Deeper deeper into the mine
Pick axes crack and crunch
Smack and bite in to the stone
Ores leak like a stream above
Hotter and hotter rammed into small space
Then bomb!
It gets dark, ground shakes
People die.
Smog grows thick as fire grows
Higher and higher
Coal comes from the dark
Taken to the canal by oss
Kids run darn the roods
Toys in ond
Miners rise sit in charcoal stains on
White ripped shirt
The eyes burn as they get awt
At the back one being carried awt
His mining days had gone
Is he dead or alive?
Will he make it?
Thomas Hindmarsh.
Cottages
Smoky sparrows
Thick coal
Black gold mines
Clusters of deserted cottages
Dingiest black
Sinking Pits
Black Country
Tart Arian region
Night fires light up the dark landscape
With a fiery glow
Sediment
Black gold
Fuelled industry
In the 18th and 19th century.
Sonia 9.3.
Covered in smoke.
Covered in smoke and lots of coal
All those years ago
A dark day
Even darker in the night
The coal and the mines
And minerals more
Shadowed the Black Country
Years and years ago.
Men as strong as stone
Women tough as chains
Yet put them all together
And we are sharp as nails.
Loyalty passion and humour
Makes us who we are
As we are all different
We are never the same.
Daylight and flowers dwindled away
As darkness showers them for days and days
Yet fossils and coal stick around today
So the black country is mostly the same.
Jessica Conroy.
Dark Houses.
The dark houses lean together
Like people leaning on each other
Niki Cottrell.
Deep deep below.
In the dark blue of a sea
Where sea creatures roam wild and free
Unknowingly swimming off
What a great land is below them.
Years have passed from the sea
A people mining down to the past
When it was a tropical paradise
They find coral, shells and more and
Take to the sunlight again.
They see the light again but oceans pump
Freely building what it is again today.
The amazing land the Black Country
is a time machine to the past
Where sea creatures roam wild and free.
Ben Robins. 7.2.
Dialect
Bin (been)
Lickle (little)
Ay (haven’t)
Cud (could)
Kay (key)
Chuck (throw)
Owt (nothing)
Up the wooden hill (up the stairs)
Nah (no)
Tay (tea)
Riffy (dirty)
Yo (you)
Nikkita Hyde 7.2.
Dinosaur Seed.
Like stepping into the Garden of Eden
Mountains of limestone that date back a million
The finest wild flowers
The hidden rigged fossils
Buried in tropical paradise
For over a million years
In the Black Country
Together
Forever
It’s ours forever.
Daniel J.  7.2.
Down in the Mines
Down in the mines
Back in time
Down in the shafts
Covered in Ash.
Millions of years ago
Miles and miles below
Animals lived under water
Dinosaurs that were slaughtered
By a meteor
When there was water.
Now the land is filled with fossils
The water gone
Replaced by grass
Has been like this
For centuries past.
Finlay Hodnett 7.2.
Dudley Castle
The Dudley Castle sits on a hill
Like an eagle sitting on a crag
Looking down to Stourbridge.
The light is shining like a bright
Golden star
The Dudley Castle is like a massive mansion.
Nadia.
Eden
The Garden of Eden
Full of flowers
Dudley stands above the rest
Like a tower.
Limestone is a fine stone
People used to mine stone
People should not moan
This beautiful town we do roam
This town isn’t on loan
It’s ours forever
Shout it loud and clear
Black Country has no fear
Fossils we found
Our history in the ground.
Iblal Hussain  7.2.
First Began
When the mining first began
Smokey sparrows flew over the skyline
Above the towns littered with winding fear
Towers, towering the gold mines.
The thick coal was hauled up from the mines
With sweaty tired men heaving
Then, no birds to be seen
Flying over the hills of cinder
Black and gold mines
When the blind gin horses walk
There dutiful rounds
While cottages sink into the sinking holes.
Callum Ward.
Flowers
The flowers nodded their heads to the beat of the breeze
The fossils stirring beneath the earth
Waiting
Waiting
Embedded in limestone
Yet to be discovered
Unlike coal.
Powering the furnaces
Creating the flames
Welding the chains
That add to the churning chaos of sky
Black as the chains born in fire
Red as the flames that create them.
Yet in the meadow the rocks lie in peace
A graveyard of deceased
In unmarked graves
A sea of discovery
Lies untouched for eternity.
Amy Perks.
Fuel
Coal, the black gold
That fuelled the industry
Without it the black country
Wouldn’t be
No birds,
Black smoke
Making chains
Cottages swallowed up
In sinking pits
Black is all I can see
Smoky sea like fog
You cannot see.
Sam Bywater.
Garden of Eden
Stepping into the Garden of Eden
The finest wild flowers
Mountain of limestone
Back over 400 million years
Dudley was a tropical paradise
But only the fossils remain.
Blackness of the faces of the coal miners
Coal covered the earth 2 feet around
Few trees are to be seen
Only smoke at first sight
Miles and miles of black waste
Throughout the ground.
Giants
Swinging fast
In a strange land
Another worldly place
A place of beauty
The giant eventually dies
Its body lies
Motionless on the sea floor
Years pass, it’s a giant fossil
Surrounded by loads more.
Then suddenly a light takes it
To the surface
Now another world from what it knows.
Ben Robins  7.2.
High Hills
High hills of cinders
Spoil from the mines
Where smoke blackened the sky
Killing innocent civilians
Horses tortured used as slaves
As mine carts rise from the black
As shadows die
Cottages warm and snug
As people sleep
Waiting for shifts
To go down
Into the blackened shadows.
Toby Quinn. 9.3
Industry
Black country gold and fuelled industry
Perpetual twilight reigns
During the day and during the night
Fires on all sides
Light up the dark landscape
With a fiery glow
From time to time
You pass a cluster
Of deserted roofless cottages
Of dingiest brick
Like the ribs of a half decayed corpse.
Alina 9.3
Knowledge Rocks
BÂ Â lack Country
LÂ Â imestone
AÂ Â lways working hard
CÂ Â oal
KÂ Â nowledge in the rocks
CÂ Â oal field
OÂ Â ak works
UÂ Â nderground
NÂ Â ever sleeping in the rocks
TÂ Â rains thud and hiss
RÂ Â eally deep beneath the ground
YÂ Â ours and mine the Black Country.
Adil Kiyani.  7.2.
Landscape
The landscape, covered by grass
Dinosaurs do not trespass
Minerals underground
Dinosaur fossils not making a sound
The olden days
Living their ways
Coal resting waiting to be found
Valuables covered in stone and dirt
Sinking into its core, still illuminating
The industrial; revolution revealing
Black skies concealing
Our community
The Black Country emerging.
Reece. 8.1.
Limestone Reaches
B lack Country meadow surrounded by rocks
T hat are millions of years old
L imestone reaches back over 400 million years
A nd is laid bare for us to see
C oal is what gave Black Country its name
K nowledge in the rocks
C oral fossil in a rock found in a meadow
O ur home is the Black Country
U nder the sea, no more in the Silurian age
N ever forgotten by people
T his is our home
R ecorded as fossils
Y ou can enjoy it too.
Asif Rehman.
Meadows
Black Country
Black Gold
And meadows of wild flowers
Crinoids
Corals on rocks
Our black country
Under the sea
Now laid bare for us to see.
The black country geo park
Revealed in the rocks
Yours and mine to share.
Subhan Ahmad.
Millions
B lack country
L ack of material
A ddictive to mine
C alling for help
K illing people every day
C alling dead to rot
O ut of water – dying of thirst
U sing your own pee to live
N othing else to eat
T rying to get
R aining hard
Y ou shall not pass.
Hamzah 9.3.
Mines Mines.
Mines mines everywhere
Nowhere else to compare
So much coal in the ground
Dig it up, it’s worth every pound.
Black Country Black Country
Named after coal
Black Country Black Country
Is our heart and soul.
Smog smog everywhere
All going into the air
Burning every piece of coal
That we got from a deep big hole.
Joel Cartwright.  7.2.
Much History
B lack Country has so much history
L arge amount of fossils underground
A swathe of meadows full of the finest wild flowers
C oal and fossil so important over the years
K itchen stove helps to create coal.
C rinoid which are the remains of fossils
O pen a beautiful natural flower
U nderground so much to see
N ew discoveries
T ropical Paradise
R ipple of rock broken
Y ear past almost a million of years.
Fares Koitom 7.2.
My Black Country
The present rises from the past
Rocks of all shapes and sizes
Have found the meadows,
that lead to history’s most precious prizes.
The midnight black of the coal
The tropical of the paradise
Fossils buried in the ground,
The cries of the rocks
That lived safe and sound.
Arising from the sacred sail
History awaits,
Mountains of limestone
Chains of steel
Black emanating mist
The Black Country awaits.
Iqra Amjad
Names
Where did the Black Country get its name?
Was it just a silly made up game?
Coal in the undergrowth
Was black and dark
It can be found under houses
Our under a park.
The coal would burn to make flames
Warm and comforting
But that’s not the name.
By day black smoke would fill the air
By night the fire would
Transform the red sky – which is rare.
So that’s how the Black Country got its name
Black Country is never the same.
Jordana Stringer.
New age
In the new age of the black country
There are fossils of all shapes and sizes
That materialise before
Your very eyes.
There are gardens
During the summer months
That are like
Stepping in to the Garden of Eden
From the dark burning coal of the air
To being full of a multitude of insects
Walking through the blinded streets
Of blackened smoke
To a swaddle of meadows full of
The finest wild flowers
The black country
The new age.
Ethan N.
Night Sky
Black smoke filled the night sky
Whilst the sound of chains
Rose up from the mines
And heat bled from the entrance
The smell of coal began to choke its’ victims
Then cover them in dust
The air was no longer filled with clean oxygen
Only dust coal and smoke.
Bethany Dubberley.
Night
The mines were as black as night
Coal
Fossils
Iron
The mines were 100 feet below
They mine so slowly
Death facing them
In their eyes
Their families are terrified.
The Black Country is named after coal
The founder of industry from times of old.
Jon Turnock.  7.2.
Now only Fossils.
For centuries the ground has been filled
With many wonderful things
There were many fossils there
Such as coral and shell
Our area has been an amazing
Tropical paradise
But now only fossils remain.
We once never knew that where we live now
Was covered with crystal blue water
Full of beautiful animals
Which are now extinct.
Sarah Kiran.  7.2.
Older and Older
I stand on the ground
Looking at the inevitable mines
Coal crumbles
Making an earthquake
Laying, glistening in lines.
Older and older
The mine gets
My ancestors remember the first
Mine digging experience
Fossil fuels get better
Yet stories are told
From other experiences.
Katie Newton  7.2.
Our Country
Our Black Country flag
Black white and red,
Changes black by night and white for day.
I really want to say
What Black Country pays to stay happy.
The roads are big
Full and beautiful lighting
Like a bright sun
The people of Black Country
Are kind as only Black Country people can be.
Nimra Rasheed.
Perpetual Twilight.
Coal, perpetual twilight reigns during the day;
A few smoky sparrows; abandoned, thoroughly mined
For many years.
In the black country perpetual twilight reigns
During the day
Black smoke leads the way
Thoroughly mined for many years
There may be some fears
But never any tears.
No birds are to be seen
Except a few smoky sparrows
The mines that were worked in are too narrow.
They are full of danger,
But we are loan rangers.
Farena Samra.
Pleasant Green
The Black Country
The pleasant green of pastures are unknown
The streams in which no fishes are to swim
Black and unwholesome
The natural dead flat is often
Broken by high hills of cinders
Trees are stunted and blasted
Nothing is to be seen
Miles on miles dark waste spreads
Furnaces smoke whilst steam engines
Thud and hiss
Long chains clank
While blind horses walk their rounds.
Mohammed Zain Awwab.
Poem
Black, billowing smoke,
Living museum, black country bloke
All is dark at day
Chains
Kings tell us to make more equipment.
Coal
Our product made the industrial revolution
Use mines to get coal
Now we are civilised
To re-cycle
Ripple beds
Yam Yam.
Ethan Buckby.
Proud
In a Black Country meadow
Full of the finest flowers
We are proud to call this ours
Surrounded by rocks of a million years old
Coral on rock, fossilised
Bordered by mountains of limestone
Some are 400 years old
Fossilised shells in the rock
They open up desires
Like a key in a lock.
Sideways on at the Dudley beach
In the Black Country beauty is found.
Sabeel Alam
Sleeping Rocks
BÂ Â lack Country
LÂ Â imestone
AÂ Â lways working hard
CÂ Â oal
KÂ Â nowledge in the rocks
CÂ Â oal field
OÂ Â ak works
UÂ Â nder the ground
EÂ Â ver sleeping rocks
TÂ Â rains thus and hiss
RÂ Â eports on mines and minerals
YÂ Â ours and mine the Black Country.
Osa Hussain  7.2.
Smoke filled Skies
Black coal
Smoke filled skies
The sound of the smokey sparrow cries.
Deep down below our feet
Where the burnable rocks lie
Chains rattle
Sweat runs
As hands are stained black.
Coal black days
Fiery red nights
Blasted trees lay
But are hidden by lack of light.
Thick smoke begins it’s torture
To choke it’s victims
Who dare to linger too long
Slowly overtaking their lungs
In the red glow of night.
Gemma Smith
Sparrows in Smoke
Black country
The crushes of ashes
The blur of light
Shot into my eye
And rolled out of sight
The evolution of mining
Seized the world
When the government
Was earning some dough
Sediments
Fossils
Tropical paradise
The name where no cue
Needed to apologies
This is a place where no one leaves
Where the underground was lying for you
Discoloured faded and torn
Where cherished memories are
Still on hold.
Naila 9.3
Sparrows.
No Birds,
Except a few smoky sparrows
What happened?
Back then
Black clouds
No air
Coal fumes.
Tom Bradley.
Speech
The black country
is where we live
People don’t get us
because of our speech
The dark region
Comes out of the mist
We deserve attention
More than anyone else
Miners are digging gold
While it’s getting sold
Fossils we find
Under the castle
We will be cherished memories
If we don’t do something quick
We might be torn and fooled
But we still have a heart
We are known for our glass
And the limestone too
The factories rumble and roar
As the smog builds up
The black country is the best
Better than the rest
We may not be known
But I’m glad I live here.
Eleanor Randle.
Surrounded
A meadow surrounded by rocks
Uneven rocks, crushing the wild flowers
These rocks fossilised and rippled
By time itself.
These rocks have watched the
Black Country grow
They have seen the black mist
Disappear
And have watched the land change
And they are proud to have.
Farris Omar 8.1.
Swathe of Meadows.
Black Country has loads of history
Loads of fossils in the Black Country
And a swathe of meadows
Full of the wild flowers
Candles used to light the dark
Kitchen stove to create the coal.
- Malik 7.2.
Tall and proud
The old crumbling bricks
Fall down one by one
And after that
All of the memories gone
The trees cast shadows on the old castle
Like a birds nest
The Castle standing tall and proud
With all the people crowding around.
Ellis Rose  7.5.
The Flag
The Black Country flag is the best
From all the rest
Fly the flag for Stourbridge
Red is for night
Black is for day
And I really want to stay.
I’m proud to be in the Black Country
It’s a bostin place
There’s lots of places to see.
You can find cool things
Like rocks and so on.
Come to the Black Country
And explore beyond limits.
Insha Akhlaq.
The Undergrounds.
Hundreds of feet below
There lies mines
Full of coal and iron
Many thousands of years ago
It wasn’t like this at all
It was a tropical paradise
Whereas now it’s a pile of coal.
But let’s just be proud.
Cerise Shields.  7.2.
Thick Coal
Thick coal,
Unwholesome
Perpetual twilight reigns
During the day
A few smoky sparrows
Abandoned
Thoroughly mined
For many years
There was always hope
Never any fears.
Hannah Perry.
This used to be
This used to be
Under the sea
With the fish you will see
All of them wild and free
Trees and trees
All so warm
Maybe some
Cobs of corn.
Every day
A man will die
Unless that may
Be a lie.
Luke Grove.
Tomorrow
Black coal everywhere
Lack of food
And pollution in the air
Clap my hands to get it off
Known as black gold.
Coal precious coal left for tomorrow
Over the Black Country pollution has spread
Ultimate paid within
New factories made every day
Trees make this place beautiful
Really proud to live here because of hard work
You should be proud too.
Jasmin Rafiq  7.2.
Used to be
It used to be a coal mine
It’s grown bigger and better
Over time
One place that used to be
A coal mine
Is now
Merry Hill
The biggest and busiest shopping centre
In the Black Country.
Everything has changed
From 1800 to 2015
It is a beautiful paradise
That is being recreated
By the fossils on the floor
That is a symbol of the past.
That’s what makes the Black Country
Our home.
Molly Goode. 7.2.
Warming Home
People speak in a language of their own.
The coal warming their home.
People work in the mines all day long.
To help their day they would sing a song.
They have worked in the mines all their lives
Always there for dinner and then home to their wives.
Tyler Cox.
What it means to me.
The Black Country flag is very beautiful
The colour red is the volcano’s lava
On the flag there is the colour black
Which is the colour of the roads.
The streets are crowded like people
Watching a performance
There’s fossils which are called coal and it
Is shining like a black knight.
It was black
There was no transport
Also whenever people want to go
To another country they
Never had a passport.
Nadia Zafar. 7.5.
Wonder
Have you ever wondered how the Black Country got its name?
When the colour of the sky and the ground used to be the same.
When black coal was the only thing that could be found on the ground
When there were lots of people but not much sound.
This is what symbolises our home town.
The Black Country.
Faizan Kauser.  7.2.
Young and Old
Whether we are young, whether we are old
We are one, we shine like gold
Looking at the black sky
Watch evil come alive
When times are hard
We will still hold on
While fossils and life
Still go one
Then we make some dough
This is our home
We’ll never go
We have our flag
With hope and pride
We live as one
We are
The Black Country.
Jake Faulkener.