April 21, 2013

The Manchester Diaries: Episode 4: Hulme. Welcome to my neighbourhood.

Today I want you to come with me for a stroll around my neighbourhood. I've settled in Hulme area. It's not what the majority of people would call a beautiful place... 
However, in a certain sense and to some extent, I'd say it is. Yes. It is.
Or, at least, I can see a kind of beauty which I do really appreciate, as raw as it is.
I hope you'd guess why.
Stretford Road with Shawheat Close
Upper Moss Lane with Stretford Rd
More Stretford Rd
The gardens behind my bus stop
The Zion Centre opposite Hulme Park
Hulme Park (side view)
 History of the area written on the ground of Hulme Park
Hulme Library
And eventually, for those of you who have come to this end, here you have the poem written in the ground of Hulme Park:

This is 
where you are
and everything that's ever been
is 
a memory stored within
your skin,
rocks and water,
moon and sun,
cobbled streets under ancient hills
and mills
and chimneys billowing.

Vertical villages
for shimmering pilgrims
a grand central station
for each of our tribes
who made their migration,
carved better lives, from
days dark as pitch.
Enslaved by the rich...

We have simply survived.


I can smell the coil and the misery of the very first industrial revolution working class, can't you? 

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