The Great War – Free Verse – October 26, 2014

From Portraits of War – Click the photo to go to the blog.

strange mankind’s frivolous dreams
dressed in gnarled blue scenery
but the poppies growing in the field
found their roots in dead men’s blood
or so the stories and songs go,
of the apocalyptic great war

thirteen days the battle raged
audible were the wails of pain
many have written their literary tales
exalting the heroes of the day
blotted “inklings” and bad verse
of the apocalyptic great war

and yet … now I look on this field
no sign of battle here remains
speedy the passage of time
that covers all men’s follies handily
in blue scenery and frivolous dreams
remain heroic epilogues and celebrations
of the apocalyptic great war

(c) G.s.k. ’14

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The poem refers to an imaginary battle that could have taken place during the Great War, also known as the First World War.   This year is the 100th year since the beginning of that war … it was called “great”, until WWII,  because it was so terrible that everyone thought that mankind would never dare to fight another war.

I’ve used “inklings” the way I did because to the best of my knowledge there is no plural of inkling … but there was a Literary group called The Inklings at Oxford (of which among others Tolkien was a member) … so I used “inklings” as a metaphor for messy writing as in ink smudges.