Litany of Coal by Jean Taylor

These days discussions of coal centre, rightly, on its negative effects, the pollution and its contribution to climate change. However, coal mining was once a vital part of many communities in Scotland (as it remains in many parts of the world). 

Jean Taylor is the daughter of a mining surveyor and draws on family history and a childhood spent in Nigeria and Scotland to explore the legacy of the coal mining industry. 

The beautifully written poems in this pamphlet feature blacksmiths, colliers and their families, scullery maids, the lord of the manor and coal mine canaries. All the poems relate to various aspects of the coal mining industry and mining communities. 

The constant fear of mining accidents meant that miners' families were very superstitious:

'Shoes laid on tables, propped up ladders,

spilt salt - all carried risks that needed warding.' 

 

from Married In

 

As well as the constant threat of accidents, abandoned mines were a constant danger to the unwary. Visitors from other places might not be aware, but the children living in the mining communities, such as Mossmorran.'knew the whole town was rotten. Abandoned /pit shafts lay in wait like cats for spiders.'

 

The families were, by necessity, careful with resources too:

 

...........................................................'now new quilts 

are needed. Rachel prepares her squares -

the herring-bone that made Tom look so dapper,

her own blue felt, Nan's jacket,' 

 

from Back-stitched 

 

The writer several times ponders the colonial legacy of her ancestors' involvement in managing coal mines in Nigeria. referring to a bureau that was given to her grandfather, by the colliers of Lassodie Colleries, where he was the manager: 

 

'and did my grandpa feel bad

about taking the food

out of the mouths of bairns

and should i think his bureau a safe place

for storing my poems.' 

 

from The Plaque

 

This small book offers a lot of insight into the legacies of coal mining, and ends, beautifully on the beach, looking at: 

 

a sparkled trail of anthracite

scopped from rich seams 

that lie untroubled now 

beneath the Firth.  

 

from Spring Tide.

 

Litany of Coal by Jean Taylor, published (2024) by Red Squirrel Press. 

Jean Taylor attends one of my creative writing groups. You can read my review of her earlier poetry pamphlet 'Deliberate Sunshine' here.