There were posts on Facebook about this and a poem by my friend, Tony Church. He also talked about creative writing on his blog and it made me think about updating mine.
I was also inspired to write a poem. I used to write alot of poetry, but haven't done for years.
As always when thinking of World War One, I do so through the prism of Wilfred Owens' poems.
Somme
A hundred years on
As obfuscated
As a cloud of mustard gas
Filling the battlefield.
'Lions led by donkeys'
The post war generation said
Wary of another war
After The Great War-
'The war to end all wars'.
After a century,
At The Cenotaph,
'The Glorious Dead'
Are still hailed,
Despite the testimonies they gave.
All dead now
They cannot contradict
So revisionists rewrite
The history of the war.
The glory of mud and slaughter,
Of gunfire and going over the top,
So Empires could grow
And warmongers could get rich.
War serves a purpose.
Remembrance is sanitised,
So they can still peddle
That old lie:
'Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori'.
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