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.
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| Stretford Road with Shawheat Close |
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| Upper Moss Lane with Stretford Rd |
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| More Stretford Rd |
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| The gardens behind my bus stop |
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| The Zion Centre opposite Hulme Park |
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| Hulme Park (side view) |
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| History of the area written on the ground of Hulme Park |
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| 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?
