Monday, July 28, 2014

"One Hundred Years" - A War Poem On A Grim Anniversary

This is a poem I wrote on this, the 100th anniversary of the human scourge that was World War I.

"One Hundred Years"

One hundred years
Since that frivolous war
Boys sent unto battle
By leaders, risk they ignored
To scenes of earth blazing
Of men screaming in gore
Of gases unleashed
Of breaths taken no more
For what? A name on a cairn?
What was it they were fighting for?

One hundred years
And so little we’ve learned
Monsters we create to destroy
Friends whose bridges we’ve burned
A chance to stop the machine
Forgotten as profits churned
A nation under God we claim
His message discounted and spurned
We say we seek after peace
But it is for power that we yearn

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for your poem! Also for all of your other posts on war. This link is fitting to post along with your Anniversary poem.

    http://news.msn.com/videos/?ap=True&videoid=1d8ab4a3-a285-0c6f-5297-a81aed58889e&from=en-us_msnhp

    The story is about a mother who lost 4 sons in WWI in less than a year and a half and the news article written at the time was "Upheld the Traditions of a Fighting Family." Isn't it tragic that the "traditions" of that family was to Fight for King and Country. It made me cry for the false traditions we pass on from one generation to another. The blind patriotism that makes men and women call these deaths a "glorious sacrifice".

    Oh dear God forgive us.

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