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21/10/2016

Commission to Commemorate Aberfan

Grahame Davies and Tony Curtis were commissioned to produce a sequence of poems to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Aberfan Disaster on October 21 1966, in which 116 children and 28 adults were killed when a colliery waste tip collapsed on Pantglas Primary School.

The poems accompanied the famous series of photographs taken by I.C. Rapoport for Life magazine in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. The sequence was performed at a special commemorative evening at the Red House in Merthyr Tydfil, as part of a week of events commemorating the tragedy. Further details are here.

Grahame Davies's opening poem from the sequence is below:

The graves at Aberfan

The hearts of every woman, every man
- for distance is no hindrance to dismay -
go to the rows of graves at Aberfan.

The prayers of every capel, every llan,
bring to the village where no children play
the hearts of every woman, every man.

Those who can find no God and those who can,
saints who despair and apostates who pray
go to the rows of graves at Aberfan.

The separation that no sense can span
will break forever, one October day,
the hearts of every woman, every man.

You who believe that God must have a plan
- tell it to those whose memories today
go to the rows of graves at Aberfan.

All that we fear the most since fear began,
the tide of black no love can keep at bay.
The hearts of every woman, every man
go to the rows of graves at Aberfan.

Poster for Aberfan event

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