After being away for two weeks it is time to get back into the swing of Colleen’s Tuesday Poetry Challenge 152 and this week being the first challenge of the month, it is ‘Poet’s Choice’.
It is Remembrance Sunday in the UK and at this time I like to pay tribute to my grandfather who was killed on November 2nd 1918 after serving from the start of war, being wounded three times, and then being killed just 9 days before the Armistice. My mother was just over a year old.
This year, I thought I would write a double etheree to honour all young men who ended up on the front lines. And in the image is a haiku from a previous year.
Double Etheree – Young Soldiers
Young,
eager
full of fire,
they stand in line
waiting for orders
that will force them into
leaving their boyhoods behind.
In the trenches rank and muddy,
where rats scurry amid the clutter,
final cigarette butts fall to the ground.
The whistles blow and driven by duty,
a khaki wave flows into action,
straight into a hail of bullets
that only few will survive.
In those first dire minutes,
an eternity,
they push forward
just to claim
one more
yard.
©Sally Cronin 2019
If you would like to participate in this week’s challenge here is the link: https://colleenchesebro.com/2019/11/05/colleens-2019-weekly-tanka-tuesday-poetry-challenge-no-152-poetschoice/
As always delighted to receive your feedback and thank you for dropping in … Sally.
Powerful prose Sal, and most telling tribute. ❤
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Thank you Debby…♥♥
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God bless us, everyone ❤
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I agree Annette ♥♥
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Heartbreaking. I wish we didn’t do this.
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How can civilized human beings think war is the answer to anything. A powerful poem, Sally.
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Thank you Darlene.. and it is usually toothless old men who pull the first trigger instead of working things through.. and the young men and women are the ones who suffer for it.
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Exactly!
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My dad used to say about war that we don’t need to make better bombs; we need to make better people.
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Excellent, very wise words..x
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This is a very emotional poem, Sally.
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My mother didn’t even have a photograph of her father and I know that made a huge difference to her life and her approach to family. My grandmother remarried seven years later but always felt guilty for betraying her first love. xx
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That is such a shame for your grandmother. She shouldn’t have felt guilt, Sally. I am sorry your mom never even saw a photograph. I have a limited number of pictures of my biological father. It has never bother me though, I consider Dean (Dad) to be my father.
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So lucky Robbie that your mum found happiness again and such a wonderful Dad for you…xx
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Yes, I was very lucky.
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Sally, a powerful and moving Double Etheree in memory of your grandfather and all who fell. The format works perfectly, starting with the single word of young, leading to the eager souls, builds to the moment of clambering the ramparts, to the tragic deaths, for just yards. One can never really fathom the loss, pain.
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Thank you Annika.. I saw first hand how the loss of a father at that age impacted my mother and a generation of young women who lost fiancees and husbands and who never recovered. War is dreadful and without glory itself, only for those who serve.
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Well said!
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Thanks Liz..xx
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Oh, Sally! This is one of the most beautiful poems I’ve seen about soldiers and what they are forced to face! Brilliantly done!
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That is lovely thank you Jan.. They must have been terrified. As must have been their parents and families once the true nature of the war was realised. xx♥
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I would say that still applies today as so many of our young men return from the Middle East, missing limbs and wounded inside and out.
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I agree with far too many homeless and forgotten.. xx
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Thank you for your tribute to our fallen soldiers, sailors, and airmen who sacrificed their lives for our freedom. Our Veteran’s Day is tomorrow, and this was fabulous, Sally! ❤
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My sisters are going to our local cenotaph in my home town and as my grandfather was Irish I will have a minutes silence here for him too…♥♥
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What an amazing connection, Sally. I lost a great uncle on Normandy Beach. My grandfather served in WWI, my father in WWII, my brother in Vietnam, and I served in peacetime. Not bad for a bunch of Russian immigrants! ❤
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And one does have to ask, what would your country done without them! So much is forgotten about the sacrifice of those who adopt a country and are now treated with less than respect.. ♥♥
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So true. It makes me want to scream. ❤
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♥
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Very poignant, Sally.
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Thank you Olga..hugsx
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A very powerful poem to honor those who died in the War to End All Wars.
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Thank you Liz.. hugsx
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Very moving… your words resonate with me as we celebrate on this Veteran’s Day.
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Thank you Barbara Ann.. so much sacrifice from those barely older than children.. hugsx
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Well done Sally. Sad moments in the history of mankind.
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Afraid so Allan.. thank you..
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Reblogged this on Where Genres Collide Traci Kenworth YA Author & Book Blogger and commented:
Love this, Sally! Such a shame the young die so soon.
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Thank you Traci… and I agree, for their loss of the future and ours… xx
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