Favorite Poems

[Mustang]

We Got favorite ships, we got favorite quotes.
Now lets go for those famed songs & poems.

http://www.polkcounty.org/timonier/images/3mast.jpg
"Old IronSides!"

Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky;
Beneath it rung the battle shout,
And burst the cannon's roar;
The meteor of the ocean air
Shall sweep the clouds no more.

Her deck, once red with heroes' blood,
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o'er the flood,
And waves were white below,
No more shall feel the victor's tread,
Or know the conquered knee;
The harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the sea!

Oh, better that her shattered bulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave;
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,
The lightning and the gale!

[Drebbel]

“The Trade”
1914 - 1918
Rudyard Kipling



THEY bear, in place of classic names,
Letters and numbers on their skin.
They play their grisly blindfold games
In little boxes made of tin.
Sometimes they stalk the Zeppelin,
Sometimes they learn where mines are laid
Or where the Baltic ice is thin.
That is the custom of “The Trade.”

Few prize-courts sit upon their claims.
They seldom tow their targets in.
They follow certain secret aims
Down under, far from strife or din.
When they are ready to begin
No flag is flown, no fuss is made
More than the shearing of a pin.
That is the custom of “The Trade.”

The Scout’s quadruple funnel flames
A mark from Sweden to the Swin,
The Cruiser’s thundrous screw proclaims
Her comings out and goings in:
But only whiffs of paraffin
Or creamy rings that fizz and fade
Show where the one-eyed Death has been.
That is the custom of “The Trade.”

Their feats, their fortunes and their fames
Are hidden from their nearest kin;
No eager public backs or blames,
No journal prints the yarns they spin
(The Censor would not let it in!)
When they return from run or raid.
Unheard they work, unseen they win.
That is the custom of “The Trade.”

[Mustang]

I'm not familure with that one.
Is it in referance to the Privateers?

[Kapitan]

want to hear baldricks poem of the german guns ?

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
BOOM BOOM BOOM
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM

and the ending goes BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM?

yes sir how did you guess

[lesrae]

I did a study on WWI poetry at school (that was 20 years ago - ouch) and I still remember a lot of it. Some of my favourite are by Wilfred Owen:

DULCE ET DECORUM EST

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.


ANTHEM FOR DOOMED YOUTH

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, –
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.


Coincidentally, when I went to study at Napier College (now University) in Edinburgh I was based in the Craiglockhart building which is where Owen convalesced when he was recovering from shell shock - they had some very interesting memorabilia there.


http://sites.scran.ac.uk/Warp/Craighist/bowlingGreen.jpg

[Oberon]

Argh! Dulce et Decorum Est!! That brings back some memories, I also did a study (and exam) on WW1 poems, and that was one of 'em! :o

A couple of my favourites:

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am in a thousand winds that blow,
I am the softly falling snow.
I am the gentle showers of rain,
I am the fields of ripening grain.
I am in the morning hush,
I am in the graceful rush
Of beautiful birds in circling flight,
I am the starshine of the night.
I am in the flowers that bloom,
I am in a quiet room.
I am in the birds that sing,
I am in each lovely thing.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there. I do not die.

Mary Frye

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.


Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.


Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.


Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.


You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.


Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.


With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.


Max Ehrmann

[Pigfish]

A very Canadian poem:

"There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee. "

Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows.
Why he left his home in the South to roam ‘round the Pole, God only knows.
He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell;
Though he’d often say in his homely way that “he’d sooner live in hell.”

On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail.
Talk of your cold! through the parka’s fold it stabbed like a driven nail.
If our eyes we’d close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn’t see;
It wasn’t much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee.

And that very night, as we lay packed tight in our robes beneath the snow,
And the dogs were fed, and the stars o’erhead were dancing heel and toe,
He turned to me, and “Cap,” says he, “I’ll cash in this trip, I guess;
And if I do, I’m asking that you won’t refuse my last request.”

Well, he seemed so low that I couldn’t say no; then he says with a sort of moan:
“It’s the cursed cold, and it’s got right hold till I’m chilled clean through to the bone.
Yet ‘taint being dead--it’s my awful dread of the icy grave that pains;
So I want you to swear that, foul or fair, you’ll cremate my last remains.”

A pal’s last need is a thing to heed, so I swore I would not fail;
And we started on at the streak of dawn; but God! he looked ghastly pale.
He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day of his home in Tennessee;
And before nightfall a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee.

There wasn’t a breath in that land of death, and I hurried, horror-driven,
With a corpse half hid that I couldn’t get rid, because of a promise given;
It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say: “You may tax your brawn and brains,
But you promised true, and it’s up to you to cremate those last remains.”

Now a promise made is a debt unpaid, and the trail has its own stern code.
In the days to come, though my lips were dumb, in my heart how I cursed that load.
In the long, long night, by the lone firelight, while the huskies, round in a ring,
Howled out their woes to the homeless snows—O God! how I loathed the thing.

And every day that quiet clay seemed to heavy and heavier grow;
And on I went, though the dogs were spent and the grub was getting low;
The trail was bad, and I felt half mad, but I swore I would not give in;
And I’d often sing to the hateful thing, and it hearkened with a grin.

Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay;
It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the “Alice May.”
And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum;
Then “Here,” said I, with a sudden cry, “is my cre-ma-tor-eum.”

Some planks I tore from the cabin floor, and I lit the boiler fire;
Some coal I found that was lying around, and I heaped the fuel higher;
The flames just soared, and the furnace roared—such a blaze you seldom see;
And I burrowed a hole in the glowing coal, and I stuffed in Sam McGee.

Then I made a hike, for I didn’t like to hear him sizzle so;
And the heavens scowled, and the huskies howled, and the wind began to blow.
It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled down my cheeks, and I don’t know why;
And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak went streaking down the sky.

I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear;
But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near;
I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: “I’ll just take a peep inside.
I guess he’s cooked, and it’s time I looked;” . . . then the door I opened wide.

And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar;
And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: “Please close that door.
It’s fine in here, but I greatly fear you’ll let in the cold and storm—
Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it’s the first time I’ve been warm.”



"There are strange things done in the midnight sun

By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee. "

[Scion]

Narrator: In A.D. 2101, war was beginning.
Captain: What happen ?
Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb!
Operator: We get signal.
Captain: What !
Operator: Main screen turn on.
Captain: It's you !!
CATS: How are you gentlemen !!
CATS: All your base are belong to us.
CATS: You are on the way to destruction.
Captain: What you say !!
CATS: You have no chance to survive make your time.
CATS: Ha Ha Ha Ha ....
Operator: Captain !!
Captain: Take off every 'Zig'!!
Captain: You know what you doing.
Captain: Move 'Zig'.
Captain: For great justice.

:cool:

[TLAM Strike]

THE GUPPIES
Long before the advent of the hippie and the yuppie
There was a class of warship that was fondly called the Guppy.
Now the Guppy was a submarine, in case you didn't know,
Long and black and sleek she was, and always on the go.

In World War Two, the submarines were our first line of attack,
Many of them went out to sea and some did not come back,
Now the submariners knew this but still they went to war,
To defend their nation's freedom was what they were fighting for.

After World War Two had ended, when the Japs and Germans quit,
Someone thought the old subs should be streamlined just a bit,
So they re-designed the old boats and named them GUPPY Class
With snorkels, better batt'ries and a hull to make 'em fast.

They went to sea both north and south from the East to setting sun,
They never knew when night was o'er and daytime had begun.
Theirs was a life of silence and the darkness of the deep,
Sometimes their only pleasure were a few hours of blessed sleep.


They ploughed the seas from Pole to Pole in defense of freedom's goals,
From Pearl Harbor, and Yokosuka to the faroff Iceland shoals,
To spy on Soviet submarines and other ships of war
Was the job of these brave lads who roamed the ocean floor.


They ran patrols from Greenland to the shores of Timbuktu
The GIUK GAP and MED RUN were just nothing for a crew
of Guppy sailors who thought the NORTHERN RUN okay,
Then take shore leave in Norfolk for another night of play.


How many Guppies were there? Far more than I could name.
And each has earned an honored place in the Guppy Hall of Fame.
They fought the war with Soviets in secrecy and guile
Until the foe gave up the fight, which made it all worth while.

Now they're gone, as all ships go when their tour of duty's o'er,
Brave Guppies, stalwart warriors, they roam the seas no more,
They've gone to graves far out at sea and this should be their lot,
Gone from the sight of those they served but not to be forgot.

Bob Harrison, 9/4/00, Greenfield, IN


I'M THE GALLOPING GHOST OF THE JAPANESE COAST
By Constantine Guiness, MOMM 1/C, USN

I'm the galloping ghost of the Japanese coast
You don't hear of me and my crew.
But just ask any man off the coast of Japan
If he knows of the Trigger Maru.

I look sleek and slender alongside my tender
With others like me at my side,
But we'll tell you a story of battle and glory,
As enemy waters we ride.

I've been stuck on a rock, felt the depth charge's shock,
Been north to a place called Attu,
and I've sunk me two freighters atop the equator
Hot work, but the sea was cold blue.

I've cruised close inshore and carried the war
to the Empire Island Honshu,
While they wire Yokahama I could see Fujiyama,
So I stayed, to admire the view.

When we rigged to run silently, deeply I dived,
And within me the heat was terrific.
My men pouring sweat, silent and yet
Cursed me and the whole damned Pacific.

Then destroyers came sounding and depth charges pounding
My submarine crew took the test.
Far in that far off land there are no friends on hand,
To answer a call of distress.

I was blasted and shaken (some damage I've taken),
my hull bleeds and pipe lines do, too
I've come in from out there for machinery repair,
And a rest for me and my crew.

I got by on cool nerve and in silence I served,
Though I took some hard knocks in return,
One propeller shaft sprung and my battery's done,
But the enemy ships I saw burn.

I'm the galloping ghost of the Japanese coast,
You don't hear of me and my crew.
But just ask any man off the coast of Japan,
If he knows of the Trigger Maru.

[Mustang]

The Price of Freedom

So many shouts against our FLAG,
so many screams of hate and rage.
As with their freedom they do yell,
against the wars of past present days.

A flame erupts among the crowd,
Red, White and Blue does burn.
More shouts by those so naïve,
to blind, to young to ever learn.

Then in the midst a soldier stands,
with medals pale with time and pride.
Scars of wars on his face do show,
upon a steel chariot he does ride.

"Know you not of men that died,
of women sent to early graves.
As for your freedom they did stand,
so many heroes so many braves.

Rows of stones with forgotten names,
proud soldiers laid to peaceful rest.
Did die for that FLAG you so burn,
with their life they gave their best."

Silence came upon the raging crowd,
as this soldier stood in pain,
He rendered one more sharp salute,
as heaven's angels came.

A broken heart stopped that day,
too much for one to silently bear.
Memories of friends past that fell,
so strong the past so still unfair.

So if you do not know the price,
of freedom you do so use to rave.
Look beneath at yonder rows of stone,
for that price they Proudly gave. [/i]

[Mustang]

The Submariner

Only a submariner realizes to what extent an entire ship depends on him as an individual. To a landsman this is not understandable, and sometimes it is even difficult for us to comprehend, but it is so!
A submarine at sea is a different world in herself, and in consideration of the protracted and distant operations of submarines, the Navy must place responsibility and trust in the hands of those who take such ships to sea.
In each submarine there are men who, in the hour of emergency or peril at sea, can turn to each other. These men are ultimately responsible to themselves and to each other for all aspects of operation of their submarine. They are the crew. They are the ship.
This is perhaps the most difficult and demanding assignment in the Navy. There is not an instant during his tour as a submariner that he can escape the grasp of responsibility. His privileges in view of his obligations are almost ludicrously small, nevertheless, it is the spur which has given the Navy its greatest mariners - the men of the Submarine Service.
It is a duty which most richly deserves the proud and time-honored title of....
Submariner.
[/b]

[Skybird]

Argh! Dulce et Decorum Est!! That brings back some memories, I also did a study (and exam) on WW1 poems, and that was one of 'em! :o

A couple of my favourites:

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am in a thousand winds that blow,
I am the softly falling snow.
I am the gentle showers of rain,
I am the fields of ripening grain.
I am in the morning hush,
I am in the graceful rush
Of beautiful birds in circling flight,
I am the starshine of the night.
I am in the flowers that bloom,
I am in a quiet room.
I am in the birds that sing,
I am in each lovely thing.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there. I do not die.

Mary Frye

Thanks for that one. I know the German version that was given in the autobiography of Ken Wilber and always wondered who has written it.

[Godalmighty83]

HAD I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

[Letum]

When I was 14 (6 years ago) Ii went on a school trip to the Somme in France. One of the places we visited was the Canadian battle field (something or other ridge) The ground had been left how it was and yuo could see all the crators and trenches. A pine tree had been planted there for every canadian that died. It was an amazing place, once I had got away from the croud of the school trip it was so peaceful. I felt humbled by the place - Its hard to explain - it just had such a peacefull feeling about it dispite all the death and the way the ground was ripped up. I found some where alone and sat down. It was early evening and the light was filtering through all the trees and the birds where singing before they roosted for the night and I wrote this - Its still my favorite poem, not because it is as good as more famous poems, but because it brings back all the feelings of being there for me.

Marked

Death has carved this landscape
Into ditches, crators, holes and hills.
But the mud has long gone
And now grass grows
Lit in strips by the sky,
Broken up by tall straight trees
Full of bird song.

But the ground, still torn apart
Remembers the sound
Of shells and bombs
It pays no heed to the silence,
As it lies scarred and broken,
Contourted in pain.

And where the dead lay
There are no grave stones,
Just thowsands of tall straight trees,
Full of bird song,
That break up the sky.

[Takeda Shingen]

Too long to repost here, but a link to TS Eliot's The Waste Land, long a personal favorite of mine.

http://eliotswasteland.tripod.com/

[Egan]

Green Fields of France by Eric Bogle

Actually a song rather than just a poem, the definitive version, IMO, is the one by the Furys. He also wrote 'And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda' which some of our Australian chums here might be familliar with.

Green fields of France.

Well, how do you do, Private William McBride,
Do you mind if I sit down here by your graveside?
And rest for awhile in the warm summer sun,
I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly done.
And I see by your gravestone you were only 19
When you joined the glorious fallen in 1916,
Well, I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean
Or, Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?

Did they Beat the drum slowly, did the play the pipes lowly?
Did the rifles fir o'er you as they lowered you down?
Did the bugles sound The Last Post in chorus?
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some loyal heart is your memory enshrined?
And, though you died back in 1916,
To that loyal heart are you forever 19?
Or are you a stranger without even a name,
Forever enshrined behind some glass pane,
In an old photograph, torn and tattered and stained,
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?

The sun's shining down on these green fields of France;
The warm wind blows gently, and the red poppies dance.
The trenches have vanished long under the plow;
No gas and no barbed wire, no guns firing now.
But here in this graveyard that's still No Man's Land
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man.
And a whole generation who were butchered and damned.

And I can't help but wonder, no Willie McBride,
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
Did you really believe them when they told you "The Cause?"
Did you really believe that this war would end wars?
Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain,
For Willie McBride, it all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again.

[Mustang]

To the king of his Navy

Where'er thy navy spreads her canvas wings,
Homage to thee, and peace to all, she brings:
The French and Spaniard, when thy flags appear,
Forget their hatred, and consent to fear.
So Jove from Ida did both hosts survey,
And when he pleas'd to thunder, part the fray.
Ships heretofore in seas like fishes sped,
The mightiest still upon the smallest fed:
Thou on the deep imposest nobler laws,
And by that justice hast remov'd the cause
Of those rude tempests, which, for rapine sent,
Too oft, alas, involv'd the innocent.
Now shall the ocean, as thy Thames, be free
From both those fates, of storms and piracy.
But we most happy, who can fear no force
But winged troops, or Pegasean horse:
'Tis not so hard for greedy foes to spoil
Another nation, as to touch our soil.
Should Nature's self invade the world again,
And o'er the centre spread the liquid main,
Thy power were safe; and her destructive hand
Would but enlarge the bounds of thy command:
Thy dreadful fleet would style thee lord of all,
And ride in triumph o'er the drowned ball:
Those towers of oak o'er fertile plains might go,
And visit mountains, where they once did grow.

The world's restorer once could not endure,
That finish'd Babel should those men secure,
Whose pride design'd that fabric to have stood
Above the reach of any second flood:
To thee His chosen, more indulgent, He
Dares trust such power with so much piety. [/b]

[Kapitan]

Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who biddest the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

O Christ! Whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their raging at Thy Word,
Who walked on the foaming deep,
And calm amidst its rage didst sleep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

Most Holy Spirit! Who didst brood
Upon the chaos dark and rude,
And bid its angry tumult cease,
And give, for wild confusion, peace;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

O Trinity of love and power!
Our family shield in danger’s hour;
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect us wheresoever we go;
Thus evermore shall rise to Thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea


Not a poem but close enough during WW1 one member of my family lost all three of her sons in the space of less than a year plus more as well, and some we know nothing of.

[kiwi_2005]

[/quote]want to hear baldricks poem of the german guns ?

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
BOOM BOOM BOOM
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM

and the ending goes BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM?

yes sir how did you guess

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

[Mustang]

Weapons

There are many types of weapons
But the ones that hurt the most
Are the weapons made of memories
And the deadly midnight ghost
Not all wounds are red and bloody
There are wounds that touch the mind
These are wounds that always fester
They're the never healing kind
Why are we who've done our duty
Plagued by wounds that never heal
Made by weapons of our memories
Which are worse than lead and steel

[Ishmael]

Here's one I wrote a few years back on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. It is entitled,"Mushotoku"

Mushotoku
By Richard Scott


The essence of One Cut, We climbed Mt. Niitaka,

That bright December morning on the East Wind Rain.

Crying, “Asia for Asians!”, we stooped out of the sky over the harbor of pearls,

Like cherry blossom petals on the Kamikaze,

To slay the sleeping giant, honor our Emperor and our ancestors.

We ran wild over the Pacific for a year,

But we had only awakened the giant,

Filling him with a terrible resolve.

Our Chiburi, blood falling like rain,

Was scattered across the jungles and atolls of the Pacific,

Leaving a trail for him to follow,

Back to the home islands.

We honored our Emperor and our ancestors,

But the giant brought with him the Whirlwind,

That burned shadows into the walls of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,

And changed the Divine Showa into a human being.


Mushotoku
By Richard Scott
© 1990 all rights reserved

[Rockstar]

There once was a man from nantucket... oh nevermind :88)

[blue3golf]

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

-- Randall Jarrell

Even though from the Air Force I've liked this one since I first heard it. Blatantly honest.

[Konovalov]

By Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet : On Freedom

And an orator said, "Speak to us of Freedom."

And he answered:

At the city gate and by your fireside I have seen you prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom,

Even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them.

Ay, in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff.

And my heart bled within me; for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfillment.

You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief,

But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.

And how shall you rise beyond your days and nights unless you break the chains which you at the dawn of your understanding have fastened around your noon hour?

In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle the eyes.

And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that you may become free?

If it is an unjust law you would abolish, that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead.

You cannot erase it by burning your law books nor by washing the foreheads of your judges, though you pour the sea upon them.

And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.

For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud, but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their won pride?

And if it is a care you would cast off, that care has been chosen by you rather than imposed upon you.

And if it is a fear you would dispel, the seat of that fear is in your heart and not in the hand of the feared.

Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which you would escape.

These things move within you as lights and shadows in pairs that cling.

And when the shadow fades and is no more, the light that lingers becomes a shadow to another light.

And thus your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom.

[Letum]

Not My Pancreas

Why, oh why, oh why
Do the girls not talk to me?

Is it my ears? They droop. The lobes are prominent
Like bulbous, fleshy eardogs.

Is it my eyes. My piercing, grey-blue eyes. They stare
At children.

Is it my nose? It is large but not unsightly.
The bridge is formidable.

Is it my hair, all lank and chewy?
It reeks of uncles. Naughty, naughty uncles.

Is it my heart? It is brown and beats like puppies.
Puppies bouncing off an anvil.

Is it my legs? My hefty, bovine legs?
The knees are like udders.

Is it my pancreas? No. That is my greatest asset,
Yet it hides within my torso and mocks me from within.

Is it my chin? It juts downward towards hell
As though showing me my destiny.

Is it my glans?
Yes. It is my glans.


Anon

[Ducimus]

My personal favorite:


That Something

It's funny, how one can lie,
and remember things of days gone by.
And in perhaps one short minute,
recapture a past year and all thats in it.

It's funny, how a quiet room, gives chance to ponder,
sending our thoughts back through time to wander
Perhaps a tune, or even a funny phrase,
will recall something that happened in by-gone days.

Everyone stores up things that have past,
some are forgotten, others will always last.
But a soldier who has been to war,
has in life's memory book, something more.

"Something" that can only be,
in the memories of men, like you and me.
"Something" that is born midst shot and shell,
develops and grows in times of bloody hell.

This "comradeship" as it is known by us,
of which we never make much fuss.
Is this "something" which in our minds was set
in lands where many are lying yet.

And so I remember from the start,
the lads I knew, now far apart
my soldiering is finished, I leave it all behind,
but that "something" comes with me in my mind

- Ronald A.Tee
56th Reconnaisance Regiment

[Fish]

I must go down to the seas again to the lonely sea and the sky.
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by
And the weel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking
And a grey mist on the seas face and a grey dawn breacking.

I must go down to the seas again for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying
And the flung spray and the blown spume and the sea-gulls grying.

I must go to the sea again to the vagrant gypsy live
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind is like a whetted knife
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a fellow-rover
And queit sleep and a sweet deam when the long trick's over.

John Masefield