Transitions @Tears in the Fence Festival / 20-22 September 2019
Month: July 2019
Lewis & Hole, Stroud, Gloucestershire, 1993
A bit of local history. Lewis & Hole started melting iron in 1946, immediately after the Second World War. Many people from Stroud remember the building, which used to be the centre of Dudbridge area of Stroud.
This is a set of images taken by photographer John Stadnicki in 1993, a few years before the foundry was closed down, following redevelopments in the late 1990s. Although the work conditions were as close to Dante’s Inferno as you can imagine, people were proud of their contribution to the local industry.
Photography: © John Stadnicki, 1993.
Kafka
© John Stadnicki, 2019.
The other day, during an afternoon nap,
a tramp came to my door with a letter
for the man in apartment three, ground floor.
The knock made me jump, then I thought
I could give out some change in return,
but the beggar refused; he was holding
a bunch of keys and left saying ‘till tomorrow.’
When I opened the envelope, lying flat
in my bunk, a pair of handcuffs and
steel neck chains dropped on my chest.
© Maria Stadnicka, 2019
Poem published in Osiris, U.S., Vol. 88, July 2019.
Maria Stadnicka 