A sodden day in the Northern Quarter
Tib street floods with sounds of the wetness
voices chilled, bones ache
Sitting on the curbstone
her voice echoes
frail
Paled by the wind,wet and wishing
for something
better
even if to fix her old shoes
"sixpence mister? n'all I ask"
"fer yer luvvly lass sir"
Her heart trails off
to the pounding sounds
of the city
as the knocker-upper gathers his pole
He nods to Mary
"Ow do lass, 'nother bloody misery of a night"
And the gas-man comes 'round
douses the lamps
for the day
the barrow boys on the corner
start to holler their last wears
Mary huddles further
into the roadside
gathering her skirts
wringin' out her day
And the rain pours on her sole-less shoes
A tuppenny loaf for her kids
and a quart of milk
would be her fill today
Still not enough
to mend her shoes
"g'night Mary, 'ope ya 'ave a better day 'morrow"
the knocker-upper getting ready
for his long night
He knows her pain
sorrow
the wetness of her skin
He chucks her a sixpence
keeping his thoughts
inside his old bones
he hopes that the holes in her life
mend soon
" 'appen she'll be reet"
Flowers clinging together
Tib street moves like still waters
alone, wet and dulled by time
dusk falls through downpours
onto the souls who work
for pennies
to cover their eyes
Author notes
The Northern Quarter and Tib Street are a part of Manchester where I live
In the late 1800's the whole area was known as Smithfield Market area.. still is to many 
I imagined the woman sitting on the corner of Tib street near where the Barrow boys have had their pitches for over a hundred years..
A knocker-upper was a man who had a large wooden pole who went round the streets tapping on windows to wake all the workers in the wee small hours
and the gas-man had a hooded pole to knock out the gas lamps
(many of which in the Northern Quarter have been converted to electric now..)
Written August 6th, 2005
In a list
A contest entry
- Tell Me What You See by wishintreeUK.
500 points, ended August 8, 2005, 5 entries
Bronze trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
What did you think
Comments
1 - 16 of 16
-
love how you wrote the accent. its a thing i like to do, write accents. it adds to the atmosphere of the piece. intriguing is an understatement. i have never been to the UK so this is totally engrossing for me that you have done such an excellent job with the imagery. and not necessarly that you are painting a specic picture by describing places, you are defining the emtion of the place, and that is what sticks me. that you write about the pure emotion of being on this particular street or what not and it puts me right there so much so i feel like i am standing in the rain with you.
-
Being and Englishman I know a little of our history, so all made perfect sense to me while I was reading.What a beautiful but sad image you have painted of life, and not so long ago either.A wonderful poem that i enjoyed reading more than once
-
Thankyou for the trophy
it was a fun contest to do ..
-
This is an excellent piece of work, I have read many, many books of life in early England times and this could stand on any bookshop shelf and be proud of place. Your dialogue is brilliant! I live in Leicestershire England UK so am familiar with what you write of here. The "knocker upper" is someone my mother told us children stories about time and time again! I have been in my element wandering down memory lane ... this is a wonderful piece of Local History, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
Well Done and thank you for entering my contest.
~Katie~
-
Fantastic story telling abilities laced in long ago times.Gave a feeling of being there on the street watching the scene in compassionate saddness.I too saw a flower woman of small means.I watched an old American 1940's movie called,(Apple Annie) about a poor woman who sold fruit on the streets of New York.Or even the famous,Liza Doolittle) in the musical My Fair Lady,selling flowers on the streets.We in America have and still do have such unfortunate souls as these.Nice piece!~~~Suseann
-
As a proud mancunian, this makes me rather homesick Gill. Still feel slightly alienated amidst all the scotsmen, with people constantly saying I sound like something straight off Corrie. Repeating myself over and over at times so these barbarians can understand
A nostalgic look at the days of old, the culture, the people, their pride, the struggle. And the bits of local vernacular cleverly distributed left me with a huge grin. Gorgeous piece.
" meks me dead proud...nowt like a good poem "...
Sonia ~ XX
Edited on Aug 07, 5:47 p.m. because 'typo'. -
a dickensian fable... I'll be sining "cockles and muscles, alive alive oh" for the rest of the evening (and the song does sadden me, so maybe I'll play some good ole rock and roll to cheer me). This nicely captures the essence of the picture: the figure and atmosphere, but also the glow of hope and goodness.
-
hehhhe
it used to be called the Northern Quarter a longgg time ago... and it now fashionable again.. hehhe
and I actually work in the old Smithfield area.. lololol
so Tib street is a spit away.. lolol and the barrow boys are all still there too
so it's an eclectic look into nostalgia of old Manchester -
Yeah yeah ok. It is a good write. You know when a poem hits home when you can get the right angle of the bricks in your mind: Tib Street past where the girls used to stand, past the shops where they would sell budgies, and iguanas in ten different flavours, and then out into the taxis and dark rainy lights of the Oldham Road. Oh we never called it the 'Northern Quarter' when I was a kid, but then I am a long time out of Manchester. Which in some ways is a bit sad.
I like the idea that a sixpence (last seen 1970) would heal the Holes in Life (last seen 1982, 1995, whatever).
I like this poem, so I do. -
This poem has completely thrown me, you managed to transport me back in time, into the fierce rain and feel this woman's troubles and pain. One of the most effective parts were your descriptions- for example,
'alone, wet and dulled by time
dusk falls through downpours'.
The speech in the poem made it very realistic, and I really liked your interpretation of the picture. Extremely powerful, beautifully told. I hope you do very well in the competition!
-
hehhehe
it's a well known phrase in the north of England as there were many knocker-uppers.. lolololol
my great-great grandad was one.. hehehhe
thanks Bohb.. made me smile again
-
Ahh Stef... you have simply touched my heart with your comment
I am amazed and in awe of it all
many thanks my friend
hope all is well in Yorkshire too heheheh roll us da cap lad* -
Erk....a knocker upper eh? grin....I've never heard that particular term...but as for the rest....all near pure Dickens it were.
And I'd have been the one on the end...of the street selling tattered benches and chairs....slowly starving.
Nicely done...very atmospheric. Love the rain...wish I had some....even if I had to sit in it. -
EEh lass, it were 'ard life in t'cotton mills o' Lancasher, t'woollen mills o' Yorksher and everywhere dan t'pit.
Not much really changes though, does it. I think I read something about that area of Manchester where you migh have seen the same kind of thing for centuries.
Of course , you kno wthi sis my kind of poem, both in style and content. What you have manage dto achieve so well, is an atmosphere, a story and a comment. All these elements avoid sentimentality, yet they do not go the other way and become too dark, too brittle, and most of all divorced from the imagination and experience of 21st century people. I guess what I am saying is that you have written in in such a sympathetic manner, that everyone can relate to the protagonists in one way or another.
The last verse is brilliant; the whole conveying the flowing movement, not only of the shift workers of Tib Street, but of time and humanity itself. I also like the gruff kindness, the reticence expressed in the action of the knocker upperer, the phrase 'he hopes the holes in her life will end soon' tells us so much about Mary, so much about himself, and so much about 'the situation'. Also I have to mention how , although the scene, the life is /was bleak, you have managed to convey that so difficlut to describe thing , maybe peculiar to Northern England, of a sort of 'detached community feeling'- you know, where people care without seeming to care- you know what I 'm on about- course you do, you wrote it here.
Love the poem, brilliant. Good luck in the contest, although the poem does not need to win this to be an outstanding piece of work.
-
awww.. thankyou ma'am.. most honoured indeed
-
Wonderful!
The story telling in this is excellent Gill. I've never been good at telling some kind of story, but it seems you have it down to an art form The images were a delight as it literally takes you back to the time. Every detail is as colorful as the Art above.
I love it
Edited on Aug 06, 7:26 because ''.
Adding your comment:
1 - 16 of 16
10 old applause
