Stokers

A poem by the 'Heroism & Heartbreak' Poet in Residence, Kirsten Luckins, which encapsulates the hard and unpleasant working conditions endured by ships' Stokers - indispensable yet largely invisible members of the crew.
Kirsten explains: "This piece was originally written as part of the Heugh Battery project in 2014, to commemorate the centenary of the WW1 bombardment. It was not published in the resulting anthology, To Cross the Wine Dark Sea, so I am delighted to find it a home here. It's form is inspired by Homers Iliad, which is an epic poem describing the attack on Troy from the sea - the parallels with the bombardment are clear. I use a hexametric (or six-beat) line, which is loosely Homeric, and also use long 'epic similes'. The story is told from the point of view of the German stokers, and I had intended it to show how much the men on both sides had in common, which to me makes the whole idea of the war so much more tragic."
All of our Heroism & Heartbreak 'Talking Histories', together with more than 9,000 photographs and a great deal of other fascinating facts and information relating to the port town of Hartlepool, can be viewed free of charge on our website www.hhtandn.org

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