Premature Reminisces

Rush of colours and swirl of days,
Lonely view from the small window pane,
Leftover stirfry smells haunt the kitchen
- At least the spiders haven't found me yet.
These are the things I will remember;
- Half a dozen eggs cracked on the floor
- The smell of the toilet the morning after
-The wine we drank to detract from the cooking
-The times we've talked for 45 minutes
- And the times we didn't talk at all.
-The endless games of pool and the boredom that comes with them
-The build up of scum in the terrible drainage system
-Days down the pub, long waits for the bus
-Taxis and scraped knees and snakebite please.
These are the things I will remember.

Hopeful.

Armistice Day

It's Armistice Day today and so I thought I'd post a few poems from some of my fave war poets. When I went to the treches in northern France and Belgium, and saw the Menin Gate ceremony on my 17th birthday last year I wrote 'lines written after hearing the last post ceremony at the menin gate' which I think was one of the first poems I posted here. Anyway, here are some more famous examples.


Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen: http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html
Futility by Wilfred Owen: http://users.fulladsl.be/spb1667/cultural/owen/futility.html
In Flanders Fields by John McRae: http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/inflanders.htm
Spring Offensive by Wilfred Owen: http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/wowen/bl-wowen-spring.htm
Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen: http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen2.html
Peace by Rupert Brooke: http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/brooke3.html

The title link is to a recording of what is probably one of the most powerful anti-war songs ever written - The Green Fields of France by Eric Bogle, although the recording has been done by the Dropkick Murphys.
Can you believe that here in England there are only four surviving ww1 vets? can you imagine the loneliness? I can't.
And I haven't got any poems either, I'm still busy with uni, exams and whatnot, lots of midterms which I'm not too happy with. Oh well, it could be worse, and I can't really complain about having exams on a day dedicated to men and women who died for our country.

RIP everyone, hope you have found peace out there, wherever you are.

I remain,
Hopeful.