Each November we are reminded, watching poppies fall...

Each represents a life surrendered answering duty's call.

And later, in the weeks that follow, when snowflakes fill the sky,

The mind is filled with thoughts of those whose lives had soon passed by.

Each fleeting flake a forfeited future deprived of its true worth -

And like the poppies - sent to fall and fade back in the earth...

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Let Not The Ink Run Dry

 

 

     I share because I care

And dare to say words

That some find ill at ease,

     But one thing

I’ve found within

The realms of poetry,

We’re all as daring as each,

We all open our minds our

Hearts our soul and speak,

     And yes,

I see we’re all hankering

For change,

     I see many

Who care just as much

As me, and i...

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Duty

 

 

     Alone the Kings stand,

Preparing for war again and again,

Their foe their equal pacifist state,

Humouring the torso without the will to speak,

     So many haunted,

So many taunted,

So many a serf leaves behind

Morality and normalcy,

So many the people tire

Then tire some more,

 

     The Kings are at will,

Their demons the paranoid

Of ...

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Marching on together through the fire and the flame, Sent to war as boys, but they became men this day,
Heroes of a nation, who would have knew
That they risked their lives for everyone, valiant and true.   The darkness of the battlefield, will blind them all their lives
The images that they have seen shall remain upon their minds
Yet in this hour of war, they sheltered us with their ...

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Will lurks somewhere

in all our indecision.

A will too weak to stir

our flesh to action.

A will enfeebled

by the trials of youth.

A will deformed

by dirty songs and dreary.

What will steel the will

this world has robbed us of?

 

We need a war

to steel the will again.

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But one single bullet, from barrel to throat,
Choked and opened the wounds of the world,
Unfurled in the seat of a phaeton,
Played on like the most tragic of tragedies,
Greek in essence but eastern in substance,
As Sophie wilts in the lap of Austria,
A single shot through the heart of a continent,
The blood racing fast to the carriage beneath,
Signals the start of relentless war lines,
It...

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An Angel Bathes In Tears

Diniel rested for a second
and turned his eyes away
from those that he was caring for
and in that moment all was lost.
Now he bathes in the cascades
of acidic human tears
that flood the world with grief.
Erosive and corrosive
at the passing of infant souls
in a war that has no meaning
in a world that has no morals.
Now his dainty angel features
disappear unt...

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Golden Eagle, soaring high
Shot down in flames
From hate-filled skies
Raining people
Watch them die
 
What the hell is going on?
 
Luggage scattered
Bodies shattered
Children's toys
Bruised and battered
 
They shot a fucking plane down!
 
Innocent lives of hundreds gone
Families broken
Left to mourn
The loved ones
Who won't make it home
 
Division - at what cost?
 
A politic...

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His Mother makes them both a snack

Jamal, he sits out in the back

Upon an empty old rice sack

Flip-flops and bottle tops

 

In Gaza, fun for girls and boys

Are simple things that make no noise

For Jamal they're his favourite toys

Flip-flops and bottle tops

 

He plays outside in rubble dust

His Mother smiles and is not fussed

It's safer there but only just

...

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Let us pretend 

that we haven’t been this way before

too recently and too often

that this is the way forward

that it is the road to the peace

which eluded you when you sent 

planes and tanks and men 

into Lebanon, Ramallah, Jenin,

Gaza, Gaza, Gaza.

 

Let us pretend

that this time will be different 

that this time will be worth it

that you can tot up the lives...

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Listen not unto the lie that stings the lips.
Witness not the act that stays a pitied mind.
Speak not of the hatred that will crack the whips.
Let not those insidious be here enshrined.

Trample not upon the freedoms of your kin.
Take not which was never here for you to own.
Read not of the bitterness that splits the skin.
Write not of the malice that shatters the bone.

Reason with the ...

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It was Sunday morning, 1941, the 22nd of June,

The day of the growing Moon.

The country peacefully slept

While Hitler a horrible idea had kept.

Without announcing the war

He had given an order

To bomb the Soviet Republics border.

By unexpected military actions

The fascist wanted to capture all nations,

To turn the peoples into the slaves,

To fill the country with grav...

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On the beach at Arromanches then

Young men saw friends die;

Pacing the sands of Arromanches now

Old men softly sigh.

 

There by the sea at Arromanches

They cheer a much-loved Queen

But the Arromanches that their Sovereign knows

Is not the place they've seen

And the Arromanches where their Sovereign goes

Is not the place they've been.

 

On the beach at Arromanche...

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Grandchildren Of The Somme

the dead lay on the injured earth
all wearing grey death masks of mud
a tally of what life is worth
just bone and sinew flesh and blood

attrition wrought its deadly cost
the river Somme held back its flood
humanity forever lost
just bone and sinew flesh and blood

sixteen miles wide and just six deep
survivors wondered if they could
block out the dreams t...

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SOVIET BOMBERS

 

Silver-plated mothertruckers! Yey. The Russians have bombed Georgia targets inc a Black Sea port, oil pipeline, military targets, civilians, etc. 2 jets have been shot down, 1 pilot/aircrew killed I no of. I’m not sure of Georgian air force strength. They got 29 Su-27 flankers back in 92 when they left the Soviet block. Any jets since? All will be Russian kit. Russian t...

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My father survived the Western Front and the Italian Front in the Great War, promoted from the ranks to

2nd lieutenant, 1st Battalion, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, attached to the 5th Division.  He was in

uniform again for WW2 and died aged 50 of TB when I was five.  I have a book about the 5th Division left

by him, containing some handwritten recollections of that terrible conflict...

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Peaceful citizens in the peaceful Ukraine.

Peaceful hard hats on the peaceful heads,

Peacefully breaking the slavers chain

Peacefully fight and protest.

 

If one is not peaceful, there’s no place here.

Peaceful slogans and peaceful “Hooray”

Peacefully kicking without a fear

Those who happened to fall on the way.

 

All is so peaceful, so white and so fluffy.

Peacefu...

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MISSING

 

Hurricane fighter plane dives through clouds towards the ground,

he goes down through the thick grey murk, no one can see him or knows

where he is going.

His wingmen landed some time ago and still there is no trace of him.

Is he gone, his plane so many smashed pieces of metal or burnt ash?

The dogfight was fast and swift with many planes turning and rolling

for as...

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