TEN THOUSAND TEARS

Ten thousand tears are shed for ten thousand souls lost, taken by the sea after an act of war which took so many more, forever. In a world fraught by Man’s tyranny and bloodlust, a world was torn apart and both innocent and guilty were sent to heaven and hell. What does my generation think of it all, especially of Baltic events and tens of thousands dead? Is it a case of, “Give the bastards hell and kill the krauts?” No, for me at least it’s a more human reaction and trying to understand how and why. The more I look into the loss of the ships that now lie under the Baltic Sea, the more I want to learn and write about it.

I look into myself and need to understand human nature, my own, along with that of humanity, especially the wartime generation. My tears came when I was paralytic drunk before sleep; haunting confused images in my head showing the enormity of the task I set myself. To write poetry about awful events in a distant war, now almost out of living memory, not to ally myself with “the other side” or “the Soviets” but to create something positive out of something dark and awful.

I’ve been here before, after witnessing a local murder of just one man; that was bad enough. How will I feel after seeing the remains of ten thousand souls on the sea bed and aboard a stricken vessel, never mind the others? How many tears were shed for the millions who died? In war there are no victors, only the vanquished.