Where are you going to, laughing men? For a holiday on the sea? Laughing, smiling, wonderful men, Why won’t you wait for me? God, how I love you, men of my race, As you smile on your way to a war; How can you do it, wonderful face Do you not know what’s before? Laugh, […]
Timothy Corsellis Prize
How to Kill
Under the parabola of a ball, a child turning into a man, I looked into the air too long. The ball fell in my hand, it sang in the closed fist: Open Open Behold a gift designed to kill. Now in my dial of glass appears the soldier who is going to die. He smiles, […]
Goodbye
So we must say Goodbye, my darling, And go, as lovers go, for ever; Tonight remains, to pack and fix on labels And make an end of lying down together. I put a final shilling in the gas, And watch you slip your dress below your knees And lie so still I hear your rustling […]
War Poet
I am the man who looked for peace and found My own eyes barbed. I am the man who groped for words and found An arrow in my hand. I am the builder whose firm walls surround A slipping land. When I grow sick or mad Mock me not nor chain me; When I reach […]
El Alamein
There are flowers now, they say, at Alamein; Yes, flowers in the minefields now. So those that come to view that vacant scene, Where death remains and agony has been Will find the lilies grow – Flowers, and nothing that we know. So they rang the bells for us and Alamein, Bells which we could […]