BOSTIN NEWS - Rising From A Pandemic by Al Barz

Rising From A Pandemic - Written & read by Al Barz (Bright Fork Poetry Media).

In the 1800’s, great great granddad’s time
An epidemic surged across the world
A new and strange disease swept every clime
Whole families with stomach pains were curled
Like foetuses, and many died before their time
Too many in communal graves were hurled

After disease had spread throughout the land
Imagine all that dread back in the day
Of a waterborne disease and no cure planned
And tens of thousands passed away
Industry and business left unmanned
The Black Country on its knees to pray

When Sandfields Pumping Station started up
Its Cornish Engine, forged in Tipton, huge machine,
Fear of Cholera banished from their sip and sup
And oh what joy for Walsall to have seen
New standpipes for to fill each cup
With crystal clear fresh water, pure and clean

At seven strokes a minute, all the day
It plunged its piston deep below the ground
Fetching up a ton of water straightaway
Pushing it through pipes to Walsall town
Where thirsty populations shout “Hooray!”
To the huge machine that barely made a sound.

Once more the industries of Walsall could survive
No more would each business fear to shut
Once more relief and bliss of staying alive
No more to haul their drinking water bucket from the cut
And we need celebrate this engineering feat
That brought such health, and wealth
And happiness to dance in every Walsall street.

Commissioned by content editor Heather Wastie for Bostin News.

Original cartoon drawings created for this project by Martin Hughes, pictures of Sandfields Pumping Station, Historical cartoons and photographs courtesy of David Moore and Lichfield Waterworks Trust .

Al says:

For Spoke, my monthly poetry entertainment event at Brownhills Community Centre, Martin Hughes has been creating A5 flyers for me and delivering them to my house with a little cartoon of himself on a Post-It. “I’d love to see what more he can do”, I thought.

Sandfields is a historically important part of the Black Country heritage that only came about because of a pandemic. I signed up for its newsletter from David Moore of Lichfield Waterworks Trust a few years ago. They have saved it from being lost forever and I’ve been amazed at the huge amount of restoration work carried out by their team of dedicated volunteers.

When Heather Wastie approached me to be involved in Bostin’ News, I could see an exciting way of bringing possibilities together. A poem from me, cartoons from Martin, and all based on the tremendous achievement of Walsall’s life-saving water supply at Sandfields.

During coronavirus isolation we were unable to have our regular event, so I created SpokeScreen, a poetry video composed of clips from eight local poets in lockdown and a book launch by a Black Country author. The skills developed for that have helped enormously towards editing together “Rising From A Pandemic”, a video combining poetry, cartoons, archive photographs and heritage. Bostin’ News indeed!

Al Barz - poet@albarz.uk

Bostin News is a project by Creative Black Country that has tasked 4 editors from across the region to commission works by fellow creatives as well as produce their own pieces. The project started during lockdown in May 2020 and includes music, poetry, storytelling, podcasts, interviews & articles, photography and more.