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We asked you to send in your poems about trains and railways after revealing that First Great Western, Britain’s worst-performing train company, has hired a poet to soothe the tempers of its frustrated customers. Read the submissions below.
Thane Zander sent in two poems about New Zealand trains, the first, Mountain Rail is about the South Island Transcenic cross country rail car and the second, The Northerner, September 1975, about the now defunct Northerner Overnight Express from Auckland to Wellington.
Lament for the Midnight Train by Maryann Corbett
Thursday This Week (Sevenling) by Yoly
Passing Dorval station by Pearl Pirie
India by Train by Hari Kumar, in Singapore
Train Graffiti by Nancy Williams Lazar
Jim Corner of Arizona, USA, sent his poem Cucamonga Express
Leaving On Steam by Beverleigh Gail Annegarn
Travels by Charlene Dewbre
Listen by Jude Goodwin
After Five Years by Linda Benninghoff
Nick Lanyon sent in a poem, Love on a Train, which he said came to mind on April 21, 2003, on what is known as Mr Henderson's Railway, between San Roque and Ronda
Crazy Lady by Alison Merricks, of Gretton, Northants
Follow the Train by Dan Troxell
David Barral sent his poem, The Commuter, which he wrote in 1998 while living in Cheltenham and commuting into London. He wrote: "They say that poetry can sometimes come from your deepest darkest moments and I can testify that to be true. This poem, which my wife always thinks should have been published, has sat in my drawer for almost 10 years but your article and the idea of First Great Western employing a poet to patronisingly soothe passengers felt like it's time had come."
The Time Between by Jan Jones
India, 1942 by Christopher T. George
Incident At Oxford Station 2004 by Veronica Davies
Chris Mooney-Singh's poem from Singapore about Sydney Australia, called Lost On the City Circuit.
The Disused Line by Mike Todd.
Annie Bien's poem, Interborough Transit, about a morning commute in the NYC subway system.
Callan Davies submitted two poems, Platform 9 ¾ and Victoria.
Mike Shail sent in his poem Taurus (SDR), which he wrote in 1997 as part of a review celebrating the 125th anniversary of the Buckfastleigh, Totnes and South Devon Railway, an impoverished subsidiary of the Bristol and Exeter Railway. Taurus was the broad gauge locomotive which pulled the first train from Totnes to Ashburton in 1872.
Richard Shepherd, a long suffering commuter with First Great Western, sent in two songs/poems.
B. S. Lister wrote The Train to Gospel Oak on Good Friday this year when about three trains, operated by Silverlink, were cancelled in a row.
Janet McCann, a published poet from Texas, sent two poems, Illustration in a German children's book (After Friedrich Boer, “On the Platform,” 1933) and Trip.
A commuter looks out the window by John Bull.
Train by Halvard Johnson.
Linda Dobbs sent in her poem, Essential Small Comforts, first published in Out of the Blue (Inklemaker), The Horton Writing Group (2006).
Your attention please by Brian Cushing.
David Garrett sent a poem he wrote in 1966 while at Methodist College Belfast near the district of Adelade, which is a surburban station on the Belfast Dublin railway line.
Poets and trains by Chris Willis.
Great Western Railway by Ray Dent.
Arts & Entertainment by Alex Stolis.
Tom Allen, of London, sent this little poem and a link to his online petition.
Heather Grange, of Plymouth, submitted her poem called The 12.40 from Paddington.
Commuter Angst by Judith Towler.
Train of thought. Ode to TOCS sent in by Brian Hutchinson.
Tunnel vision by Angela France.
Train poem by Beth Vierra.
The Train by Gary Blankenship.
Railway Poet Saviour by J Andrew Johnstone.

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Cucamonga Express
"Ricety-rack, rickety rack,"
a bulging stack
bellows its load
into dark, easeful danger.
Evolving hills are a prelude
to Sierra pinnacles; they slope
into thirsty mounds,
a rationing of water until midday.
Colorado's abyss shelters the rails,
while sky-reaching walls narrow
the strip of blue above,
until it bursts into waving acres
where ranch houses stand estranged.
At Missouri's northeastern tip
the rover moon spreads in saffron
layers. Planets follow the train --
weep with me as I lie on a caboose bed
humming "tatooee, tatooee."
JDC
Jim Corner, Mesa, Arizona USA