Remembrance

As we approach this November time of remembrance it is 108 years since the start of World War One, and thus probably the largest scale of trench and widespread slaughter the world had seen at that time. The following races for bigger and more successful forms of large-scale killing are well documented, but feature in my poems included below, and these said mass murder techniques were tried and tested in the many theatres of conflict since 1918.

Please read, reflect, give thanks and maybe shed a tear or two for subsequent sacrifices.

Lessons to be Learnt

Your country needs you the posters said

And you can fight beside your chums,

So off they went to the war in France

And said goodbye to girls and mums.

Very ordinary chaps, not heroes yet

Were all excited, feeling hearts soar,

Marching off to their great adventure

To win a war that will end all war.

Well, that was the propaganda then

And may even have been said in fear,

For sadly that was not to happen

At any time after, or in a future year.

Because the unprecedented bloodbath

Caused mass suffering and deprivation,

As world war one’s attrition dragged on

With atrocities that stunned a nation.

So, men who were totally unprepared

Witnessed sights that shouldn’t be seen,

Like petrified men drowning in mud,

Gassed, or blown up in deaths obscene.

Thus casualty figures hardly believable

Rose as the slaughter went on unabated.

For that final push was regularly tried

On wasted, bloody ground not sated.

With thousands of men mowed down

Strewn in agony or a hideous death,

Many crucified across the barbed wire

As devil’s disciples gasped for breath,

While their evil work was continued

But performed by unknowing men,

Who had only answered a patriotic call

That took them to hell there and then.

And so agonising slaughter continued

By new weaponry invented to kill,

Flowers of a generation sent to solve

Arguments that war never will.

*

And now my prize-winning and multi-complimented poem from more modern times, that last year I read live on BBC Radio Sussex & Surrey and had the presenter, and apparently much of Sussex and Surrey in tears. Maybe you too?

Letter From Afghanistan

A letter sent back from Afghanistan

Was not something to receive,

For it was probably tragic news

With no one coming home on leave.

Or a letter could be hand delivered

Titled on the “occasion of my death”,

Penned for you by a loved one

And will take away your breath.

Because deploying troops are told

This was a letter they had to write,

Explaining their career commitments

And love for family while they fight.

Obviously when writing the letters

The authors hoped that it would be,

Just a precautionary exercise

And that nobody would need to see,

Their words of love and farewell

As they would return safe and sound.

So the “just in case it happened” mail,

Would not be homeward bound.

But sadly, many such letters needed

Reluctant opening by shaking hands,

To a feeling we can only imagine

As nobody completely understands,

This sickening and traumatic time

When this letter home is read.

For it can only have dire meaning,

And that their loved one is dead.

Fortunately, I never had to bear this

Although at times my heart would drop,

But I’ve met and seen such bereaved

And just know their pain won’t stop.

So, we must honour and appreciate

Our armed forces standing strong,

Who sacrifice and determine for us,

That very little will go wrong.

*

To be honest I was going to add a third poem about not “writing our world off”, but on reflection I think there is more than enough subject matter and words in just the two poems, so please join me, bow your head, give thanks and count our lucky stars it was them, not us!

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Poetic Views of Life

More Poetic Views of Life

Reviews of Life in Verse

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Life Presented In Verse,

Poet Reveals All (in your world).

Poet Reflects Your World

Poetic Seeds to Fruition

Our World in Verse

Laurie’s Bundle of Poetic Humour

Tea for Two; Poetic Antics of Ted & Beth (£6.99)

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