Aberfan '66
Autumn
Thirteen O'clock in April
Friend
Fairies
Dressed to kill
The Feather
Under the Doctor
Transplant
Celeste
On South Molle Island
A Story
Seventy Five Knots, South
An Eagle Eyed
List of 2004 stories
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In 1966, the Welsh village of Aberfan attained world wide publicity when a vast tip of colliery
waste became unstable and slid downhill, engulfing several buildings including the local school.
Over a hundred children and their teachers were killed. The following poem, which includes
quotations frorn Robert Browning's The Pied Piper of Hamelin, was a protest against the practices
which may have contributed to this disaster.
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"They wrote the story on a column,
And on the Great Church window painted
The same, to make the world acquainted
How their children were stolen away;"
Call it not an act of God
That Wales now has its Hamelin town.
It was not faith that set that hill
Of damp destruction moving 'til
It brought disaster down.
Let no tears fall for those who went
Into a world beyond our ken,
But pray they found a Father's hand
Or were piper-led to a joyous land
When the dark mountain swallowed them.
But weep for those in Aberfan
Left alone against their will;
For homes where silence shouts aloud
And childish shoulders may be bowed
A double place to fill.
Weep, yes, but with an angry prayer
We'll not go limping as before,
Nor turn blind eyes,
Nor compromise
When comfort may be bought so dear;
So men shall say the sorrows of Aberfan
Bought a safer future for child and man;
And promising this; let us keep our promise!
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