March 2015

1. Nicholas Nye - Walter De La Mare. Lorraine

2. Sic Transit Gloria - Brand New. Ben

3. The Room Nobody Lives In - John Sebastian (The Lovin' Spoonful). Lloyd

4. From East Coker - T.S. Eliot (Four Quartets). Juliette

5. Being Homeless - Simon Ewing (Big Issue Poet). Linda

6. Loveliest of Trees. A.E. Housman. Lorraine

7. A Salty Dog - Gary Brooker (Procal Harum). Lloyd

8. The Buddha's Wife - Ruth Silcock. Linda

9. Poetrees - Johnny Giles (Photo). Juliette

10. As I wandered Lonely As  A Cloud - Wordsworth. Donald

11. Lake Isle of Innisfree - WB Yeats. Donald

December 2014 / First World War Centenary

Theme: First World War Centenary

1. *Peace - Julie Pritchard. Written for Red Poets publication / Taking Flight: conscientious objector exhibition in Merthyr Tydfil. Julie

2. Lights Out - Edward Thomas. Kath

3. Fratelli (Brothers) - Giuseppe Ungaretti. Juliette

3. The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner - Randall Jarrell, 1945. Donald

4. **The Silent One - Ivor Gurney. Julie

5. To Germany - Charles Hamilton. Kath

6. I know The Truth - Marina Tsvetaeva. Michael

7. Train - Helen Mackay. Juliette

8. The Fury of Ariel Bombardment - Richard Everhart. Donald


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*PEACE

The Poppy is not the reason why they died

they gave their life, for peace.

They who cannot be brought back, or released

too bring peace.

That is up to us, for they died for us

so that we could have a future.

NO, we threw it away with every

hand grenade that was thrown, and every bomb

we dropped and every gun that has been fired.

We were meant to be inspired

too  reflect and remember.

Planting a tree, building a monument

In memory.

This is not the reason why they died, it is just another lie

While they who are supposed to know why DECIDE.

Who entice, manipulate and take from deprived council estates,

too far away lands where we wear the watch and they have the time.   

Where you are sent to fight in their back yard

the dry arid terrain with the mountainous view.

For all the green is gone, they only colour is the flower

The one you wear on your lapel jacket, dress or blouse.

That is turned into a drug to give the weak power

to take the rights away from women and children.

Let’s not talk back to the past to the war that should have ended it all

When we stand in silence remember today

WHERE is PEACE.

Julie Pritchard 

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** IVOR GURNEY

Unlike all the 1WW poets Gurney was not an Officer he was a Private, he wanted to join up.

Poet and composer of music Ivor Bertie Gurney who came from Gloucester and was the first Englishman to be dually gifted in these two arts none since Thomas Campion in the reign of Elizabeth 1st and his output was prodigious

He got his blighty a nick name for war wound on 17th September 1917 he was gassed.

Later due to the loss of his Comrades, love and hope deserted him and he had nervous breakdown through his mental illness he  discovered the link between excise and how it lifted his moods.

Today they call it happy endorphins. He recovered but depression and mental illness dogged him. With help from Vaughan Williams and Walter De Mare he spent the last 15 years of his life in an asylum which was far kinder than the one his brother put him in, in Gloucester.  He died aged 47 in 1937.

SILENT ONE

Who died on the wires and hung there one or two

Who for his hours of life had chatted through

Infinite lovely chatter of Bucks accent.

Yet faced unbroken wires, stepped over and went

A noble fool, faithful to his stripes and ended

But I weak, hungry and willing only for the chance

Of line – to fight in the line, lay down under unbroken

Wires and saw the flashes and kept unshaken

Till the politest voice – finicking accent said

“ Do you think you might crawl through, there, there is a hole”

Darkness shot at I smiled as politely replied

“I am afraid not sir” There was no hole no way to be seen.

Nothing  but chance of death, after tearing of my clothes.

Kept flat and watched the darkness, hearing bullets  whizzing

And thought of music and swore deep hearts deep oaths

( Polite to God) and retreated and came on again

Again retreated and a second time I faced the screen.

Ivor Gurney