Down, down into the deep
Into the depths of the hills which sleep
Earthly death the temporal bowl
The bowels of the earth
The hell hole
Dark and black
Damp not cold
Warm as bark
From the fires below
Down we go, down, down, down
Down to the depths of the pits dark pole
Rock that’s round, slime and mould
Warm and black don’t lose your soul
Farther back, farther still
Reaches the slack of the Mendip sill
Subterranean rivers run
Inside the place hid from the sun
Farther back and farther still
Runs coal black the rocky gill
Breathes the stone lung
Its wet warmth not chill
Yet eerie stack upon stack the boulders fill
When so far down
Beneath the crown of the hill
When above you lay the weight of a hundred ton sill
What drives you down is an impossible will
It draws you down
To the world beneath
To cavernous clowns
Who hurl your belief
Into echoes around the hideous relief
Where a voice may drown without knowing a grief
Where the fantasy stalactites like acrobats stow
And chastened as sleeping bats roost under bows
Of roofs a thousand feet below
Below, below, to and fro the arches bend and breech the throw
They lend a spectacular frieze
As in a cysteine chapel we fall to our knees
And reach such wonder lust as only heaven must know
A man must be humble, crawl and lower like a snake
Slither on belly, on back on sides between cracks
Around bends without using his eyes
Just feel with his feet
Trust to the unknown
For it is in refusing to accept defeat
That for our greater sins we atone
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