Veterans · Military Families · All who have suffered trauma

A world of words that heals

FLOW is a safe, open community where poems, stories, letters and lyrics help people process trauma, share their truth, and feel less alone — in honour of our late patron, Dame Vera Lynn.

Scottish Charitable Organisation · SC050666 · Don't worry about spelling — just write

20%

of people exposed to mass violence develop PTSD

8M+

adults diagnosed with PTSD in a given year

more likely — women are disproportionately affected by PTSD

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DAWN

The airman stood at the edge of the airfield watching the dawn light slowly reveal the huge grass area that was the runway. He shivered suddenly as the cool air got through both his tunic and the overall that he wore and reminded him of the early hour. Behind him...

THE FALLEN

THE FALLEN The order came, it was to do or die, Soldiers offered a prayer to the sky, To do their duty that fateful day, Cross the battlefield where enemy lay. A hail of bullets, a crash of shell, No-mans land was a living hell, Noise and smell attacked their senses,...

Blood Red Poppies

BLOOD RED POPPIES Poppies, poppies, as far as can be seen, Growing by the wayside or in a foreign field, Blood red and growing in masses wild, Where many a soldiers fate was sealed. Small and fragile like someone’s life, Growing together in a haze of red, In many a...

passchendaele 1917

The land is killing me the soil weights a ton I had to carry all my kit helmet and gun. The land is killing me the mud and stones of passchendale are heavy and keep me on the ground. I cry out for my mother please listen to my cries the tears are so heavy as the fall...

Knife Crime Poem Two

As each day and night goes by you can hear the sound of a familys cry another young person has lost their life at the hands of somone carrying a knife. A moment of madness the snap of a mind why cant young people be loving and kind the grief and sadness will never be...

Knife Crime Poem One

Another day another night one more stabing after a fight Family and friends fighting the tears what can they do to save other familes fears. One more young persons life has been lost it is such a waste of a life and a terrible cost grief and sadness all around you can...

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IN MEMORIUM – 11th NOVEMBER

There are war memorials all over this land,Silent and cold wherever they stand,As silent as those who paid with their life,Left their loved ones, family or wife,As cold as they ground in which they lay,Probably in some soil so far away.Some were called and some were...

A Poem For Veterans

I wish you could tell them just how you feel about the torment and fear And pain in your heart, about the sadness you felt , not just for yourself but for friends you held dear They were your comrades and you held them close, just when you needed them the most To hear...

Two Platoon Contact Wait Out.

2 platoon "Contact Wait Out". "Contact Wait Out." Two platoon goes to ground. "Can anyone see the enemy." Is shouted As the platoon look around. A machine gun post. Dug in and well out of sight. For the platoon to take this position. It's going to be a tough fight....

The Bench

The Bench. Overlooking the River Humber. Standing proudly on display. A Poachers Memorial bench. A tribute to those who've passed away. Why a bench, a question you'll ask? A tribute and a mark of respect. For people to sit and think. To take a break, and take time to...

Lifted off the Streets

A taper in the sinking blackness, the only glimmer of hope in the mosquito infested cell. A thin, tick mattress and a scratchy blanket bringing no comfort was all he had to lie on. Constantly shifting to stop the rabid scraping, with encrusted fingers, of the raging,...

B.V

The B V. Across rough terrain Or trundling into battle. The BV would be strapped in. So the bloody thing didn't rattle. The BV was a life support machine. More important than the vehicle itself. It or they sat just above the first aid kit. On the back door, on a...

My Boyhood

My mother was an actress, dancer and singer on the West End stage in London. She usually performed in musical comedies which were very popular in those days. This was an era before the invention of radio, television, movies etc. Everybody would go to the theatre. My...

My Other Story

( Two years in Pakistan ) During my last few weeks in Calcutta, I received my embarkation orders to proceed back to the UK for demobilization. So I went through a period, once again of bidding farwell to all my many friends that I had made in Calcutta. Sir David Ezra...

Christmas Story

Once upon a time in a plush pad in Neve-never-land there lived an auntie and two ugly birds called Priscilla and Anastasia. Living with them was an au pair called Cheze. Now it seems that one day the auntie, who looked like the back end of Ella Sphiz, (Ella Sphiz, by...

A series of short stories

The ‘Entomologist’ It was a dark and dismal day and New Zealand lived up to its soggy reputation. The driving rain lashed almost horizontally at the building site, driven by a ferocious wind that snaked and curled around the temporary structures causing them to rock...

My career in the Military

TO ALL MY CHILDREN [And Friends} MY CAREER IN THE MILITARY by Guy Cecil During the summer of 1938 there had been talk of war against Hitler due to his demands in Europe. In October we all thought war was about to break out, so I went to the drill hall at Catford on...

Spring

Bobby was really fed up. I mean, he loved Lizzie desperately, with a passion that he had not known he was capable of feeling. Surely he constantly made that obvious in a million ways? Her health was so fragile that he worried incessantly about her, to the extent that...

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"Through my own experiences in talking with the boys and girls about their thoughts on war and how they felt about going into action… through poetry they express themselves with absolute clarity, deep feeling and simplicity. I only have to read 'In Flanders Field' or Kipling's 'Tommy' to fully appreciate and be thankful for the beauty of FLOW. We must never forget them."

Dame Vera Lynn DBE — Our late patron, 1917–2020

Dame Vera Lynn, patron of FLOW for All