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    • 2020 Winning Entries blank >
      • ODE TO A COTTON REEL - Sally James
      • ABSENT FRIENDS - NODDLE YED'S TALE - Betty Lightfoot
      • PiICKING COAL WITH DAD - Sally James
      • NIGHT SHIFT - Neville Southern
      • Frank Gibson's entry not published
    • 2019 Winning Entries >
      • A LUVIN’ ‘USBANT’S TREAT - Ron Williams
      • MOLLIE'S MEANDERINGS - Sally James
      • BLOOD BROTHERS - Sally James
      • THE OLD MILL STREAM - Sally James
      • Frank Gibson's entry not published
  • Edwin Waugh
    • Brief Biography
    • Waugh's Poems >
      • Poems and Songs Vol 1 1889
      • Posies From a Country Garden
      • More Poems and Songs - Full Length Book
      • Miscellany
  • Waugh's Well
    • WAUGH'S WELL WALK
    • Videos and Gallery - 2021 Walk
    • Gallery - 2018 Walk
    • Gallery - 2017 Walk
  • OUTSIDE EVENTS
    • 2018 Bolton Station Promotion >
      • Gallery - Bolton Station Stall
      • Video - Sid Calderbank with his Bones
      • Video - Come Whoam to thi' Childer an' Me
    • 2017 Nov 24 Edwin Waugh Tribute Night >
      • Edwin Waugh Tribute Night - Video of the whole performance
      • Videos of the Individual Songs from the evening >
        • Lift On The Way
        • Com Whoam t' thi' Childer and Me
        • Bide On
        • When The Sun Goes Down
    • 2017 National Dialect Festival >
      • Video - Sid Calderbank recites poem
  • SALES

Neville Southern

President's Cup       - Best POEM in Standard English - subject matter open
Th' Owd Tay Caddy - Best ENTRY in classes 1 - 5 from a competitor who is not a previous winner

NIGHT  SHIFT
​Wednesday morning is not halfway
 To the next earned rest they treasure;
Last Sunday seems an age away;
Folk’s lives all work, not pleasure.

These night shifts come from drudgery,
Where gas-jets light their lives,
With hearing numbed by machinery,
They return home to glimpse their wives,

To cooling beds in empty rooms,
 As wives and children trudge away
 To desks and mills and weaving looms
 To start their own work day.

 Night shifts wake later in the day
 For the all too brief reunion:
 Eating, talking, love and play
 In family communion.

But they live dislocated lives,
Like ebb tide and the swell.
Though their hope still gamely strives,
In the end, all may not be well.

They do not look for sorrow,
They know that joy is never sure.
Today will always end tomorrow
But all may hope as they endure.
_____________________________________________
  • HOME
  • LATEST NEWS
  • EVENTS 2022-23
  • ABOUT US
    • HOW TO FIND US
    • HOW TO JOIN
    • SPECIAL MEETINGS
    • ANNUAL SUPPERING DO
    • COMMITTEE
    • OUR CONSTITUTION
    • SPEAKER SERVICES
    • CONTACT US
  • COMPETITIONS
    • 2022 Trophy Winners
    • 2022 Winners' Photo Gallery
    • 2020 Trophy Winners
    • 2020 Winners' Photo Gallery
    • 2020 Winning Entries blank >
      • ODE TO A COTTON REEL - Sally James
      • ABSENT FRIENDS - NODDLE YED'S TALE - Betty Lightfoot
      • PiICKING COAL WITH DAD - Sally James
      • NIGHT SHIFT - Neville Southern
      • Frank Gibson's entry not published
    • 2019 Winning Entries >
      • A LUVIN’ ‘USBANT’S TREAT - Ron Williams
      • MOLLIE'S MEANDERINGS - Sally James
      • BLOOD BROTHERS - Sally James
      • THE OLD MILL STREAM - Sally James
      • Frank Gibson's entry not published
  • Edwin Waugh
    • Brief Biography
    • Waugh's Poems >
      • Poems and Songs Vol 1 1889
      • Posies From a Country Garden
      • More Poems and Songs - Full Length Book
      • Miscellany
  • Waugh's Well
    • WAUGH'S WELL WALK
    • Videos and Gallery - 2021 Walk
    • Gallery - 2018 Walk
    • Gallery - 2017 Walk
  • OUTSIDE EVENTS
    • 2018 Bolton Station Promotion >
      • Gallery - Bolton Station Stall
      • Video - Sid Calderbank with his Bones
      • Video - Come Whoam to thi' Childer an' Me
    • 2017 Nov 24 Edwin Waugh Tribute Night >
      • Edwin Waugh Tribute Night - Video of the whole performance
      • Videos of the Individual Songs from the evening >
        • Lift On The Way
        • Com Whoam t' thi' Childer and Me
        • Bide On
        • When The Sun Goes Down
    • 2017 National Dialect Festival >
      • Video - Sid Calderbank recites poem
  • SALES