The battlefield
25 April 2015
CAROLINE EVARI
An entry in the Crocodile Prize
Kina Securities Award for Poetry
Dedicated to all who fought for their country
and to those who lost loved ones in war
Soldiers on guard on both sides
With weary hands on rifles
They watch their enemies
Bullets in exchange
Bombs sweep over
Flames and smoke rise in splendour
Swords and shields
Come clashing
Arrows of bitterness fly high
Blood spills and thousands damaged
Warriors run from every direction
Yelling, shouting, screaming
Orders from commanders
Soldiers march on
I watch with heavy eyes
Brave men dead
Champions fight on
In a red pool of anger
Bones cracked open
Limbs ripped apart
Falling one by one
The cry of warriors arise
Vanishing into the air
The path of every suffering
Those who fought before
For their country
Awake in delight
My head bows low
Tears trickle down
The thought of loss hits
Wives await husbands
Children watch the distance
For loved ones to appear
Mothers yearn for their sons
And pray for their heroines
Far, far away
Pillars swept away
In the battlefield’s heart
Rifles rise in celebration
Swords clatter
Champions chant victory’s song
As they stand
That’s the glory of war
The sorry seed of hate
Buried away today in the battlefield
And to give the Poms their due, they have Graham Sutherland, who was probably the best ever war artist.
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=graham+sutherland+war+artist+pictures&sa=X&biw=1366&bih=634&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ei=tlg7VcO5AobYmAWooIDgAQ&ved=0CBwQsAQ
Posted by: Peter Kranz | 25 April 2015 at 07:07 PM
Caroline - thank you for a brilliant verse picture of the horrors of war.
One amazing and rather strange tradition is that both the British and Australian authorities have sponsored official war artists since WW1, who have been some of the most trenchant critics of the senselessness of war.
A visit to the Australian War Memorial is well worth it - not least for the dioramas and great art.
https://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/war_artists/artists/
And here's a list of them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_official_war_artists
It seems a strange paradox that Governments wish to eulogise war memories but at the same time employ war artists to bring the horrors back home with a twisted beauty.
Posted by: Peter Kranz | 25 April 2015 at 06:24 PM
Thank you, Caroline. Well put.
Posted by: Robin Lillicrapp | 25 April 2015 at 03:32 PM