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Mark Slade decided to write a poem after he lost everything in the Boxing Day floods.

Twas the dawn after Christmas in 2015
Mother Nature not happy at all
She cried from the skies for what seemed like a week
Roared rivers down valley and vale

And the Calder she swelled and the level it rose
Riding roughshod over all in its way
Rushing past people asleep in their beds
At peace till the dawning of day

The low winter sun lit the land to reveal
A river at leisure, no conscience, no shame
"So what if it's Christmas, I'll run where I like"
"I'm loose and unable to tame"

She bubbled and boiled, burst her banks where she could
She continued to rise and to rise
She seeped into cellars, swamped gardens and driveways
The speed taking most by surprise

We had to surrender to the angry brown Calder
And the depths of her dirty resolve
Till the sky dried it's eyes, Mother Nature drew breath
And considered how the day would evolve

The word had got out, it was tweeted and tagged
For a while we all waited to see
The dark devastation that waits in the water
The chaos that would come to be

Lo the water receded, the heartbreak revealed
Whole lives swamped in mud and in silt
The letters and photos, the memories that make us
Unable to clean or rebuild

My neighbour's piano, my own new guitar
Standing sodden and silent and lost
Damp decorations and wet wilting trees
This Christmas this was the true cost

Then out of the darkness, 'neath overcast heavens
An army of light just appeared from the blue
Shouldering shovels and buckets and brooms
An army of strangers, heartfelt and true

Their marigolds flashing while sweeping and shovelling
The traces of chaos away
Slopping out buckets and hosing down cobbles
Choosing to help those in pain

From all corners they came, they descended like angels
They shared many Gods and beliefs
What made them untied? forget all their difference?
"Help other" and "Bring them relief"

And bring it they did by the van load and car load
The mud splashed the hearts on their sleeves
To see such an army march to the same drumbeat
It makes an old cynic believe, believe
You made this old cynic believe.

This clip will broadcast on Sam Walker on Tuesday 26th January 2016.

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