Officers and Men.

StranS, I had to sign in so I could stand and applaud this lovely, heartfelt, powerful peice of writing!  I wish (and hope) that the gentleman that you're writing about knew even half of what you felt.  This is beautiful and spectacular!  Write ON!

Nice one Strans,  and well said Phil !

it's funny how men who fought in the war, like my dad my father in law, and others i worked with back in the 60's, would talk about the good fun they had, or how they had sex with lots of women. but when you asked them "how many men did you kill?" they'd only say that they shot in that direction, but they couldn't tell if they hit anyone.

my dad was a navy gunner, and from his reports [which we read after he died] he was pretty good. but he'd only talk in generalities about battles, yet full stories about the fun in-between times.

the second war was to free the world of tyrants. the first war was for tyrants, and men like my grandfather and yours, were just the pawns in their games...cannon fodder. it just goes to show what the working classes are thought of by the rich and upper classes, the lords and royalty.

and i'm a royalist!!!!

phill

One line.

That's all it takes.

One line somewhere in a poem or song that hits you, knocks the stuffing out of you, leaves you cold, makes you laugh or makes you cry. One of these and a poem is said to be great.

You have got a whole verse! The last one.

I could go into stuff like alliteration and metaphoric simile (clever one if you can do it, that) but this was merely the build-up to the punch in the heart which is the last line!

Skillfully crafted. Haunting sentiment. A fitting tribute to all who fell and (perhaps worse) those who survived them.

With your permission I would like to send this in to the local paper The Wells Journal, the local paper for the place Harry Patch lived. There are friends in the village who cared for him at Fletcher House and accompanied him to Royal Palaces and State events, I'm thinking of someone in particular the mother of whom used to go round the village collecting for the British Legion Poppy fund and who served in WWII, and I believe all would think this a fitting tribute.

Whatever you decide StranSongs (if you say yes and they publish I will post you a copy!) a very, VERY powerful poem - hard hitting and tear inducing.

Wow Strans. Exceptional writing. I've lost touch here lately and have a lot of catching up to do. I'm glad this was up at the top so I wouldn't miss it. It's easy to read that this subject is close to your heart from this visualizations that it conjures up.
Kudos to you sir for a fine piece of writing. I agree with KajiMa. This piece Deserves to be published.

Thanks for this.
Kenny

Hi,

I'm a bit gobsmacked at the response. Thank you all.

Kajima, go ahead. i've been searching for a melody to do it justice. It hasn't quite jelled yet, but it will.

I've been away - annual leave. We'll be out of the House for a while as we are having work done, so my time on line will be limited for the next few months.

Well, StranSongs, they published! It's out today.

I'm quite cross that your name appears in the body of writing and mine in bold black as if I was the author of the whole thing.

Please E-mail me your address, etc, and I will post a copy to you (including what I sent the Journal!)

YOU ARE IN PRINT! A PUBLISHED WRITER!

Good on yer!