The Weeping Angel

She passed this way and tended to our pain,

administered our wounds and eased our fears

telling us that we would be home again.

stayed by our beds and whispered in our ears,

She was gentle, but never weak or frail,

Remember Nellie Spindler from Wakefield

the only woman killed at Passchendaele

An angel weeps for her in Flanders Field

Once...

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The Weeping Angel

She passed this way and tended to our pain,

stayed by our beds and whispered in our ears,

administered our wounds and eased our fears -

telling us that we would be home again.

Once, in her hands, I saw pendant and chain,

I will remember that for many years,

an angel weeping solitary tears

that made me think of the oncoming rain.

She sent it to her ...

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Passchendaele

[Here's a poem I originally blogged in 2014 with a link to the audio I produced for it on Soundcloud - it is a collection of 8 haikus]

https://soundcloud.com/the-man-at-the-back-1/passchendaele

Blind, wide open, eyes.

Dripping poppy petal tears.

Crimson rivers flow.

Fields transformed to mud.

Deep cut trenches scar the earth.

Wounds that will not heal.

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Passchendaele (Autumn 1917)

Blind, wide open, eyes.
Dripping poppy petal tears.
Crimson rivers flow.

Fields transformed to mud.
Deep cut trenches scar the earth.
Wounds that will not heal.

Gas clouds drift from hell.
Death exhaled in fetid breath.
Lost boys fall like flies.

Ghosts haunt no mans land
searching for their bitter souls
in butchered bodies.

Finding empty shells,
...

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