WWI Tunneller Poem

The Tunneller

*****

Sweat snakes down the soldier's

grimy face. He is wide-eyed and stooped,

moving warily through nocturnal gloom.

He passes a caged canary, whose song

is stuck in its throat. Sounds are few

in this narrow underground artery,

save for a dismal watery trickle

down makeshift walls.

*****

At a listening post under German lines

can a geophone save lives?

A careful listener hears movement,

makes an attempt to warn. The enemy,

like a spectre, walks through the wall.

A violent skirmish. An uncertain hush.

A stretcher bearer is summoned

in vociferous whisper.

*****

Rum is poured when day is done and

bread broken, in unholy communion,

in a rat infested bunkroom.

A shared fear of cave-in, a shared awareness

that when candles burn low,

suffocation lurks, like a silent foe.

Not dissimilar to an unsung hero,

the tunneller shines in the hollows and shadow.

                                                                                                                                                       by Lynda Taylor

'The Tunneller' prose poem formed part of an exhibition at the National Army Museum. Part of Lynda's motivation for writing it was to pay tribute to the extraordinary role which Australian miners, in particular, played in World War One. These miners, or tunnellers as they became known, were tasked with digging tunnels which terminated at a specific point under a strategic position, and then packing the end chamber with explosive charges which, when detonated, would destroy the target. The skill, strength and sheer grit of the WWI tunnellers was highlighted in the book, Beneath Hill 60, by Will Davies (published 2010), and the motion picture of the same name, released 2010. Publications which were inspirational as Lynda developed the poem, include:

Dial, David H., Coal Miner Diggers: Hunter Valley Coal Miners at The Great War, 2007

Finlayson, Damien, Crumps and Camouflets: Australian Tunnelling Companies on the Western Front, 2010