In a time of global conflict, we can learn from war poems

Independent

28-03-2025

WAR POEMS
I once tossed a couple of war poems into one of my books
Like hand grenades, because war was happening right then
When 'then' was 'now'. 'They will be out of date and irrelevant',
The critic wrote, her pen attaching my irrelevance
To that war and her own smile, as if catching those killings
Like netted butterflies, but between words, was futile,
As if war poets were pointless and even a poem about the fall
Of the Berlin Wall would be outdated before it hit the page
Because it could only happen once, and is already over. Her observation
Was distilled in a head that so badly wanted to undo me,
It was as if she disinvented all the wars that festered and boiled
At the edges of humanity for that sole purpose.
But they are the cautionary tales in which we tread
The sharply splintered bones of our ancestors, so we should know better.
As judge I now turn the pages of teenage poems, the poets
Tending the graveside flowers of their own battlefields
In competition for a charity: Never Such Innocence.
They write about new wars, old wars, wars with body part metaphors,
So many wars to choose from. They each describe the means
Of all possible endings, in their efforts to end new beginnings.