Tradition has been sacrificed as
Rearing up in its wake is
A modernism that has no empathy.
Dreary new buildings share space with
Iconic masterpieces from a better time.
Torn down town squares means
Irreparable damage has been done.
Our lives, so much poorer now, the crime
Nothing it seems, was sacred.

Sacrificed to the will of men in grey suits
As once our built up landscape was art
Concrete and glaring glass replace tradition.
Redolent as the British public house once was
In its conveyance of a way of life to us all
Fields of broken brickwork sit where they fell.
I see quick fix estates slowly take their place
Crazily built on flood plains uninsurable.
Empathy too, is surely a thing of the past.

Empathy is lacking in the sacrifice of tradition
Modernism at any price is such a foolish path
Pathos now reigns in planning offices these days
As architects desperate for self-aggrandisement
Try our patience with glass monstrosities.
How one longs for a building of style.
Yesterday has become, well – yesteryear.

©Joe Wilson – Acrostic challenge…2017