Poems

PAYING THE PRICE A simple poppy of red and black, Reminds us of those never coming back, A stone memorial instead of a grave, Records the names of lives they gave. In uniform and civilian suit, Men silently stand to take the salute, A minutes silence for their eternal...

POPPIES In the stamens of red poppies See the eyes of dead men marching, See the glitz and glam of Empire, All the swagger, stomp and strutting, All the bugles, drums and bagpipes, Swirling kilts and horses clipping, Nostrils twitching smelling battle, Hearing thunder...

TOM “It’s only a scratch,” Said Tom, yet I’m still Here, still able to wheel myself round and See others that I’m told are worse than me And remember, with crystal clarity, Rorking carrions above the clearing Smoke and feel their wings flap-splatting in the Blood.”Get...

THE EMPTY CHAIR There it stays, the empty chair, Where once our Rory sat there, It stays there empty day by day, It’s been like that since Rory went away. Rory enlisted to do his bit, The army took him, found him fit, Whisked away to a bloody war, That’s the last of...

HOMELESS and HELPLESS The streets are cold, the pavements bare, That’s what it’s like when home’s nowhere, Life turns on a sixpence, I’ve heard them say, World turned upside down in just one day. I have my story, you have yours, It never rains but it always pours,...

IN MEMORIAM - 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...

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 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...

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...

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...