"I Am an American Soldier" & other war poetry

[Steve Plonk]

Yes, Mnaz, a sad commentary, but true... Think of the new weapon coming out---"the particle beam"...This one worries me, also. Seems like there will never be
a "war to end all wars", unless we foolishly annilate ourselves. Then the cockroaches will take over the world... What sardonic thoughts...

[Steve Plonk]

"Make the Connection"...
Waxing poetic or not?...
To rid each other of one dark knot...
Just as I am, I come back home, as they say...
Just to let you know that you are not alone...
Compassion is back in fashion today...
Hey, folks it's the right thing to do...
It includes the veterans, me & you...

Let's hear from the Veterans:
http://www.youtube.com/user/VeteransMTC?v=j0UUUM31-1c

[Steve Plonk]

Here's a song sung by Pete Seeger about the Civil War, 150 years ago...
See link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOWm9W0Pfiw

[Steve Plonk]

Here's another famous poem by Joyce Kilmer, who died in World War One.

ROUGE BOUQUET
By Joyce Kilmer

In a wood they call the Rouge Bouquet
There is a new-made grave to-day,
Built by never a spade nor pick
Yet covered with earth ten metres thick.
There lie many fighting men,
Dead in their youthful prime,
Never to laugh nor love again
Nor taste the Summertime.
For Death came flying through the air
And stopped his flight at the dugout stair,
Touched his prey and left them there,
Clay to clay.
He hid their bodies stealthily
In the soil of the land they fought to free
And fled away.
Now over the grave abrupt and clear
Three volleys ring;
And perhaps their brave young spirits hear
The bugle sing:
“Go to sleep!
Go to sleep!
Slumber well where the shell screamed and fell.
Let your rifles rest on the muddy floor,
You will not need them any more.
Danger’s past;
Now at last,
Go to sleep!”

There is on earth no worthier grave
To hold the bodies of the brave
Than this place of pain and pride
Where they nobly fought and nobly died.
Never fear but in the skies
Saints and angels stand
Smiling with their holy eyes
On this new-come band.
St. Michael’s sword darts through the air
And touches the aureole on his hair
As he sees them stand saluting there,
His stalwart sons;
And Patrick, Brigid, Columkill
Rejoice that in veins of warriors still
The Gael’s blood runs.
And up to Heaven’s doorway floats,
From the wood called Rouge Bouquet
A delicate cloud of buglenotes
That softly say:
“Farewell!
Farewell!
Comrades true, born anew, peace to you!
Your souls shall be where the heroes are
And your memory shine like the morning-star.
Brave and dear,
Shield us here.
Farewell!”

From: See link; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rouge_Bouquet_%28poem%29

[stilltrucking]

My father's war,
I think about why the most honorable men must die in wars started by the most dishonorable of men

sometimes when I think too much about it I want to drink too much and forget about it.

After Woodrow Wilson's war Makes Iraq look like a cake walk.
I an't going to study war no more.

World War One part Two
The treaty of Versailles was the treaty to end all peace,

The Treaty of Versailles - the Peace to end all Peace
www.marxist.com/treaty-of-versailles-to-...
International Marxist Tendency
Apr 13, 2009 - The Versailles Treaty of 1919 was one of the most outrageous and predatory treaties in history. It was a blatant act of plunder perpetrated by a ...

Top

SOLDIER FROM KANSAS

Postby jim turner » Thu Nov 11, 2010 12:03 pm
Grant me this leave. Let me play
my part where my helmet is hung
on my piece--well out of your way. *
Have no word spoken, no song sung.
I would not hear. See? I ignore
red fury; hot, metallic rain;
my shaken bed; the battle's score.
I will neither move nor explain.

Once, on your strange world, I stood tall
for one who weeps to have me found.
Quiet her far, importunate call
with a clod of this callous ground.
Let me sleep! Her Kansan tears fall
in Oz, with an alien sound. **

Jim about 2000

*Piece is military for rifle; shallow graves have often been so marked–by a now useless helmet hung on the butt of a rifle, bayoneted into the ground.
**My personal imagining, that if the dead do see this world it would be to them strange and meaningless.

jim turner

Posts: 215
Joined: Wed Nov 10, 2010 10:12 am

[Steve Plonk]

Still Trucking, thanks for that poem by Jim Turner. I think he's the same Jim Turner, a veteran,
and a retired Lodi, California newspaper editor, who died on June 1, 2013.

Some of Turner's works & a memorial page can be found on "Algonquin's Table" poetry site at the bottom of the page, if you scroll down. He posted on some of my poetry, before he
died, with an excellent review.

In my case, both my granddads fought in World War One & my Dad was old enough to remember the later times of that war. (Dad fought in World War 2 & Korea. My mom
served during World War 2.)

My Russian paternal granddad died in the last Czarist Russian victory in a section of Poland (once part of Russia) against the Kaiser. He's buried in a mass grave in the salt marshes of Poland.

My American paternal step granddad fought with the US Army in WW1(*) the Maritime Provinces in Russia, against the communists & also served in the Merchant Marines during World War 2.
(*)Granddad was on the side of the "mensheviks" or the Czar. It was called "the forgotten war".

My American maternal granddad, drove ammo trucks & ambulances for the US Army in WW1 & stayed in France after the war to go to the University of Poitiers to study French & French history & culture. My American grandpa also served during World War Two in the quartermaster corps.

Hey, my family is complicated.