Woodhorn Archives, Northumberland

Gail, Alan and I went to the Woodhorn Colliery Museum, Ashington, where he Northumberland archives are kept. Found some stuff about Grandad. I found in the microfilm of the Hott School admissions book the entry where he first started at the school. He was called Jack Robinson, not John.

Also at the museum was a permanent collection of paintings by the Ashington Group of pitmen painters. Interesting.

The days of atonement are over

The days of atonement are over.

The willingness to please and forgive is faltering.

The bright smile is rarer now and quick to fade.

I sometimes catch a frown where it used to be.

There is still an occasional effort to please -

An echo from the time of smiles.

You think you've done your time.

That terrible thing you did to me

Is no longer an ice hot spike.

It is warmer, cooler, smoother.

Tomorrow or the day after it will be commonplace.

Easily thought of, easily dismissed.

A watercolour memory like any other.

One day your boundless wrath will drive ice hot spikes

Into my head again.

My heart will blacken and blister in the silence.

My soul will shrivel.

I'll set my jaw and take it

For as long as it takes.

Dreaming of vengeance,

Longing for the time of smiles.

I am waiting.