We see remains of vicious war
And wonder what it all was for
The broken bodies, missing parts
With active minds and aching hearts.
How will we reach the end of this
It won’t be cured with just a kiss
The work entailed is mass indeed
This task demands the utmost speed.
We can’t permit this fear to grow
It’s time solutions start to show
Get off your perch and pull up tall
Or we shall never stand at all!
It was a very pleasant day
I saw a man he walked my way
He had a limp that I could see
He ambled past and smiled at me.
I know I’ve seen him times before
He used to pass right by my door
There is a place just down the street
Where homeless vets all go to meet.
There are some benches in a row
They sit there chatting to and fro
It seems to be their meeting place
They smoke, they read, talk face to face
It seems so sad to me that they
Have nowhere else to spend their day !
The madness of this world we see
Leads us close to infinity
Could be that war is imminent
This is the thing we must prevent.
Let’s pray to find another way
Not black or white but shades of gray
There needs to be a middle road
Some method used to share the load.
It’s time for us to stand up tall
Accept the blame before the fall
Learn how to shoulder our fair share
Tis now to show how much we care !
I hear their voices calling me
Out of a past that used to be
So long ago and faraway
That unspeakable yesterday.
I was quite young how could I know
I lost my childhood quickly though
The words I heard, I can’t forget
At times I’m sure they echo yet
And temper all my actions still
I am convinced they always will !
I find myself so very sad
O’er deeds that seem to be quite mad
This world appears so upside down
With too much hatred to be found.
I fear it’s the beginning of
Great loss of faith, kindness and love
A time when peace is known no more
As Satan’s angels go to war.
Oh woe to man and earth below
For all who come as we’ll soon know
Those days that we’ve been expecting
No margins left for correcting,
Oh gracious Lord, please help us now
To evil’s will we cannot bow !
The men who died on that first day,
Our heroes who did lead the way
They won the field in spite of fear,
Though lack of powder cost them dear.
Those patriots did do their best
And tried to scatter all the rest,
It took five years to end that war
So many lives and too much more.
Now once again we face a fight
To conquer dark, embrace the light,
As evil does lay siege our door
And aims to crush us evermore !
There are those sounds heard in the fog
That to my mind do give a jog
Returning me to the high cliffs
O’erlooking down upon the ships
When youth did rule my growing years
As World War Two increased my fears.
I heard the buoys’ bells awake
Midst all the noises shipyards make
The fog was thick, the air intense
While all around signs of defense.
It was that time too many knew
When all our hopes seemed overdue
Though in the end our loss was great
Peace came at last and not too late !
On the cliffs above that sandy beach
Learn a lesson only sight can teach
It’s a vast stretch of a foreign land
That belongs to us, in our command
And each time I’m there my heart does cry
For buried men who cannot reply.
Ten thousand erect markers still stand
So faraway from their own homeland
On American soil by that beach
That’s as far as they would ever reach !
Oh those men who took the hill that day
In a foreign land so far away,
Too many died as they gained the beach
A thousand drowned weighted in the breach.
Who knew what strengths would fill all these men
When courage chose to inspire again
And charge the hill filled with fire and brim
Like hell’s front gate at volcano rim ?
While the memories still haunt their nights
With death’s dark vision midst blinding lights,
What’s wrong with this world in which we live
When is time ripe to learn to forgive ?
There was a boy twas just a youth
Who in his life did honor truth
Integrity was his true bag
He loved his country and its flag.
They told him he was needed so
It’s off to war that he must go
And there was he, he went to war
He’d never held a gun before.
Since neither kith nor kin had he
The service was his family
His honor served him through those years
He did his duty without fears.
In one last charge as lives were lost
These men all shared the final cost
Broken bones in a tomb of stone
Engraved thereon one word, unknown !
I hear the sound of marching feet
The drums of war do loudly beat
The peal of bells does emanate
While throngs distressed paticipate.
I hear the sound of ramparts roar
There bides no glory in a war
Mass explosions and missiles flare
While cries of sorrow fill the air.
I hear the sound of shuffling feet
The muted call of last retreat
What good was all this killing for
I pray we go to war no more !
The name was Cemetery Hill
Its victims’ cries do echo still
Where fifty thousand was the cost
Of dead and wounded and those lost.
The men that fought that long hot day
They had no chance to getaway
While blood they shed covered the ground
There was no hero to be found.
A war is such an ugly curse
I can’t believe there is much worse !
There are those times that I can’t help but wander back
To those wartime years after Pearl Harbor’s attack
Now as our numbers winnow down to disappear
Gone the values we had that triumphed over fear.
Too many forget those stark days we learned to bear
Almost as though the bulk of us were never there
Memories so hard to crush, dormant in the mind
Whence hides the greater part of courage each did find !
The war for peace goes on and on
There is no winning, no gladsong
The globe is shrinking, smaller now
Yet none can win, they don’t know how !
The pitter-patter of the rain
Now dancing on my windowpane
Reminds me of that long ago
Forgotten game of tell and show.
Oh what great fun we all had then
I do not think that I was ten
We lived our lives from day to day
Simplicity that was our way.
Depression had not loosed its grip
Our world much like a sinking ship
The war had not yet reached our shore
Though it was gnawing at the door.
And when it came none was prepared
For most believed it wasn’t there
Like all our games of show and tell
In truth it all went straight to hell !
A gasp, a sigh, some sign of life
Those battle scars after the strife
A dusty road strewn with debris
A shattered world is left to see
The sadness lingers on it seems
The vanquished have forgot their dreams !
Here’s to the Statue of Liberty
And to this place called land of the free
Despite the crack in Liberty’s bell,
Honor the tale historians tell
Of Revere and his steed’s late night ride
Through this great land of the Pilgrim’s pride,
To patriots who fought in the wars
And gave their lives for this country’s cause
To the young, the feeble and the old
The quick and dead, the brave and the bold
And to our Lord who resides above
For His constant care, enduring love !
We have cried and cried
……….shed a million tears
For those boys that died
……….through all of the years
Now the war’s been won
……….but it makes no mind
While their battle’s done
……….there’s no peace to find !
Here we are again
……….on the edge of space
You remember when
……….we could save our face
Well that is no more
……….there is nothing left
None have kept the score
……….we are all bereft !
EXCUSE ME but next week will mark the 101st anniversary of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophia’s assassination June 28, 1914, the day the world as we knew it died ! Who thought this long simmering catastrophe had its beginnings in interreligious wars between Muslims and Christians ? Not I, said the duck ! Not I, said the turkey ! What I find confounding is we have here a situation existing not 100 years but 1300 years of which most of us are not cognizant ! So I ask why ? Certainly a distinctive lack of coherence and understanding. What is the problem with the world’s educational system so as to leave at least 7 billion inhabitants in darkness ? I am beside myself in my frustration and 7 billion pairs of deaf ears, veiled eyes and ignorance doesn’t make me feel any better ! How about you ? Is all this chaos for nought with total annihilation as the only answer left ? Who is there to tell the world GET REAL ! Sincerely, Claire B.
Once you and I walked hand in hand
We dug our toes into the sand
Salt water lapped about our feet
The ocean air was crisp and sweet
The breeze seemed to caress our hair
Twas such a pleasure to be there.
I can remember that last day
The one before you went away
All wars have costs that rise too high
With little chance for much goodbye.
War has not changed these thousand years
Great danger bides beyond our fears
Tis sad to say but true it seems
That youth still pays for old men’s dreams !
The battlefield’s an ugly place,
Both fear and courage on each face
As terrors of one’s lifetime wait
To learn how each shall meet his fate.
While war is part of history
No generation has been free
And battle scars won’t disappear
Until our Lord does interfere !
I found my love when but a teen
I knew great joy at seventeen
I thought the world was lean and keen
When I had turned just seventeen.
The times were tough and war was mean
When I was only seventeen
My heart got broken neat and clean
And there I was but seventeen.
All through those years that passed unseen
Life disappeared at seventeen
I wish my time had been pristine
Like once it was at seventeen
I’d sacrifice the years between
Again to be just seventeen !
It is much fun to walkabout
To run and skip and laugh and shout
How easily we make the case
That all of us wear the same face !
But do we know that this is true
Examples set by me and you
No two alike, no two the same
Each, disability to claim.
We’re not all blind, but shackled are
By speech that blames chaos afar
Who ever dreamt that there would be
A world crammed with war amputees !
I do remember very well
Tin soldiers and the tales they tell
So much of my own childhood play
Was spent imagining their day.
While soldiering was all the style
Accomplishments were well worthwhile
Real soldiers now make us take note
For soldiering can change the vote !
Most of our children have grown old
Served their nation with valor bold
The wars have come and slipt away
As mothers’ tears were in the way.
There is a lesson we need teach
The road to peace is in our reach
Tin soldiers are no longer seen
There’s Army, Navy and Marines !
I have seen the Magic Mountain
And embraced its snowy peaks
I have washed in Trevi’s Fountain
And have strolled her busy streets.
I have eaten in the Plaza
Where Bernadette met her Saint
And meandered through the vista
Where Monet did sit and paint.
I have been to London’s Tower
Where Anne Boleyn lost her head
And tred the hills of Gettysburg
Where fields are full of the dead.
I stood and watched the eastern sky
When the Challenger came down
And since that day I’ve wondered why
I still tremble with that sound.
But most of all I remember
Back when I was still a child
The seventh day of December
When all of the world went wild !
There is no honor in a war
That is not what the battle’s for
We fight to gain a victory
To bring us peace and set us free !
When lives are touched by tragedy
And good men fall in agony
We pray our God who is all-see
Will help them rise to victory.
My life becomes this crazy place
I feel I live in outer space
The worries of the world can be
Another notch upon life’s tree.
What does it mean to have a heart
When all about you falls apart
God never meant for so much pain
To punish dreams again, again !
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Claire V. Bogdanos 