The Student's War Effort

[kelby_lake]

In a strange, History-book land
There was a Great War.

In English we are called upon
To write a poem on this well-known wrong.
'Imagine them'
Landscapes peopled by puppets.
A lyricless song.

Mechanical bodies fighting with mechanical hands.
Numbered men falling to the ground.
There was sound, there was fury
Like in 'Macbeth'
We wrote essays on it
'The consequence of death'.

The puppets in my head
Play out their games
They won't end school
At 3 o'clock
Or get back from work
At 5 o'clock

They move about in grainy black and white
Action narrated by a sombre voice
Speaking war poetry
Or the words of the government
Or p43 of my History book.
All terrible adjectives and ominous nouns
And a metaphor
To try to make us understand.

We read out our verses: all metaphors
Gushing pity and worldy wisdom.
Damning judgments
Macabre adjectives.

I finish mine:
'All I know, all I understand
Is that foreign men were killed
In a foreign time
A foreign land
And many many years later
Poets write on a thing which they cannot understand'

[breathtest]

This is exactly how i felt studying the literature of ww1 last year. Even the most poignant and horrific descriptions of the death and dehumanisation cannot convey what it was truly like. The academics that believe they understand what it was like from studying photos and videos and poetry have no clue really.

But all we can do is make as much effort to reach as far as we can toward understanding and that has to be enough.

Anyway, very evocative poem, thank you for posting.....

[kelby_lake]

thanks

[JWHooper]

I see a particular poetic error in your poem. Please edit it.

[kelby_lake]

Which bit?