The Road Builders is a tribute poem for Tradespeople written by Poet Denis Glover, a lifetime writer and a wartime navy officer.
The Road Builders by Denis Glover, 1912-1980
“Rolling along far roads on holidays wheels,
now wonder at their construction, the infinite skill
that balanced the road to the gradient of the hill,
the precision, the planning, the labour it all reveals.
An unremembered legion of labourers did this,
scarring the stubborn clay,
Fighting the tangled bush,
blasting the adamant,
Stemming the unbridled rush of torrent in flood,
bridging each dark abyss…”
Welders and construction workers work very hard in the heat, sweat, dirt, smoke, and in a very dark place, concentrating at the very bright puddle of light which is the molten metal, watching it move slowly from one point to another, with these process repeated over and over..
“These men we should honour above the managers of bank.
They pitted their flesh and their cunning against odds
unimagined by those who turn wordily the first sods.”
And yet…
“And on the payroll their labour stands unadorned bythanks.
Who they are, or where, we do not know.
Anonymous they die
or drift away; some start the job again; some in a country pub
recount old deeds amid that unheeding hubbub,
telling of pitiless hills, wet mountain roads where rusting barrows lie.”
“Our Hats Off To All Tradespeople!”
Tradespeople enable us to have most of the luxuries in life. Just to name a few: a comfortable place to live in, roads and bridges to commute… from skyscrapers to trailers that we haul goods, cars and boats and your kids’ bikes….
Risks are involved in every day work, work safe for yourself and your families Brothers and Sisters!
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