Birmingham and Poetry may not seem likely bedfellows but I bet there are just as many poets per square-mile as any other vibrant community - so here's my uncomplicated starter:
Hail, Birmingham!
I was born in Birmingham,
The workshop of the world
For pins and pens and aeroplanes
And jewellery bepearled;
A place where men debated
Enlightened by the moon,
While Murdoch, Watt and Boulton
Made factory-work a boon
So people from the countryside -
Paid a pittance for their trade -
Could leave their tyrant landlords
And join the urban cavalcade.
With more canals than Venice,
Then railways here and there,
The town became a city
As industrious as fair.
Here Attwood, Bright and others
Democratised the state
By declamatory speeches
Which helped make Britain Great;
Here Joe, the city father,
A local, good and true,
Made citizens of workers
And Brummies through and through.
So, lift your glass to Birmingham,
Cosmopolitan and fab,
Where people are just people
And every child's a bab.
by Pubcollector