Do we have any poetry writters of and about the wars?

Question

i do some but have not seen to much of others doing this.

Answer 1

Only one war, the one I was in. Vietnam.
And only one poem. I wrote it 22 years after I was there. It was theraputic for me and ended 22 years of recurring nightmares. It wasn't a particularly good poem, but it served it's purpose.

Nam Dreams
From deep in sleep, in a cold sweat,
I will sometimes awake.
My legs will tremble and be weak,
My body then will shake.
The visions in my mind I see,
A time so long ago.
Of all the faces that I knew,
And those I didn't know.
I see those faces once again,
The heroes of their day.
They fought and died for freedom's sake,
That is the solder's way.
The ones of us who made it back,
Will not forget that sight.
The way our nation treated us,
Just wasn't even right.
We fought and died to make Nam free,
That's what we all were told.
The ones who did not go to fight,
Sat back and judged us cold.
The faces that I see at night,
Say set the record straight.
We did not kill for mirth and fun,
We sit by heaven's gate.
We did our best, we gave our lives.
Then we were treated bad.
They said we murdered little kids,
A lie that's very sad.
We tried to save them every one,
But we all tried in vain.
I lost a lot of good friends there,
In Nam's continued rain.
I see their faces in my sleep,
It makes me wake at night.
I pray my children never need,
To go off for a fight.
So when you see a man like me,
Who's been so scarred by strife.
Then know that I still need a friend,
To help me through this life.

Answer 2

Yes, I've done quite a few. But they were more personal. Not because I was ever in the war but because I've seen the pain of those who have.

If my dad hadn't come back from WW II (he almost didn't) I nor my brother would have ever been born. I often think about those that never were or won't be for the same reason.

My dad like many from that war became heavy drinkers. He always managed to provide a good living. But he always told me the only dream he ever had was to come home from the war. He spent alot of time at the VFW & I never really understood why as a kid. I just presumed it was so he could hang out with his friends.

But the older I got the more I began to understand. Young or old a vet was a vet. You had been through hell, lost friends & survived. He rarely talked about what he went through & even when he did it was just in generalizations. It was like a wound that ran so deep that if he probed too hard it would burst open & kill him. With the other vets each knew what was left unsaid.

When he was dying he went into psychosis brought on by a lack of oxygen to the brain. It was then I heard things that shocked me. Not because he was a bad man but because of what he was forced to do just to hope to come home alive.

After he died I wrote a poem telling him I understood & basically it ended with me telling him his war was finally over & now it was time to go home to the one who had loved him all along.

We all think we understand what a soldier goes through. But the reality we are sheltered from is so much worse than we could ever imagine. That's why Dondi's poem really moved me. Sometimes even the simplest rhymes can say more than the more eloquent & trained poets.

I have war pics of my FIL guarding the body of a fellow soldier shot down in the Ardennes Forest. But he had also told me that in some areas you had to use the bodies of your dead comrads for cover or be killed yourself. I can't even begin to imagine how difficult that would be.

I think if all these war protesters had a clue of the damage they cause in terms of propaganda they'd hang their heads in shame. Right or wrong we're there. Spewing hate & venom at their commander in chief reflects on the men & women fighting, whether we want it to or not. Debating an issue is a whole lot different than accusations & name calling.

Answer 3

I write poetry but not about the war.

Answer 4

I wrote one about the photo
of the child running toward
the camera without clothing.


the sonnet series I wrote
as a teen includes thoughts
about war.

Answer 5

Yes, I wrote one about a year ago, which I considered one of my best. The idea was taken from a book about The Titanic, though. Go figure.

Answer 6

Yes, I've written some, both now and in the Viet Nam era.

THE ANCIENT PLAINTIVE SONG

The wind blows over the fields now
As it did so long ago
And through the grass on the silent mounds
Its notes begin to blow
A plaintive tune
To which we bow
As we stand on these grounds
And think not yet of what we sow
Beneath the meadow's brow.

We've planted many fields.

And still the wind blows on.

Knowing what we know not,

Receiving what we've sown.

We stand and fall, but think not,

As wind blows on and on.


Blow to a flame our embers,

Warmth that now rests in earth,

Sinews rejoin to members,

Give to the fallen birth,

Those of the wars long past

The silent rebound at the trumpet,

Graves break with life at last.


Bush A Clerihew

The awful nefarious President Bush

In the Oval office sat on his tush

Making up schemes involving WMD's

And doing whatever the neocons please



Carmine

Colour of blood

Does honour yet show

Outpouring voluminous flow

Scarlet

TWO SONNETS ON PRESIDENT BUSH

Can we in honour yet bespeak

The loss of those for whom we care

Who falsely on a premise weak

Were sent to fight a war unfair?



That lying president should seek

The fabric of our world to tear,

Order invasion with prospect bleak

To pyrrhic vict'ry commit them there.



Yet may the choler arise in us

And justice cry out in our land

All those conspiring so to truss.



So may our Congress make a stand

National integrity restoring thus

An answer given for blood poured in sand.



I will speak their names with honour

They deserve no less

But may the Furies take in store

The defiler of their dauntlessness.

He who knew no labour

No honour could confess

Guard duty sans risk's savour
He served our country less.

But he with rancour could impugn

Much better men than he

While coddled with his silver spoon

This country never would be free

Reliant on that wiley loon,

Cocaine and booze and daddy's knee.

Answer 7

I think I have written a poem about almost every war. Which one would you like to hear about?

Answer 8

Oh...to fight is good
For to parry with wood
Will look twitty with delight
As I dance around in the light.

Answer 9

I am answering this just to say that I find Dondi's narrative very moving.

Answer 10

hmmmmm not dat i knw of..........