Best Soldiers Poems

I taste an emptiness of love
and weep from pain, in loss befall.
Hope flees in fields of light above
when time casts me its eternal pall.

As darkness dims the flame of life
with words of love left never said,
Could one escape this misty strife?
Does peace live only with...

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Only Soldiers


They are thanked for their service
by those who never served.
Commended for their bravery
by those who never donned
the colors of the country
the red, the white, the blue.

They are left alone with demons
that only they can name
seek the silent comfort
of those who know the same,
they limp...

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Irregardless of effort 
or desire,
we can't stop time.

Weeks fall into months,
seasons stream past 
like runaway trains,
stamping birthdays on calendars,
etching wrinkles on skin,
planting age spots everywhere.

The galloping gobbler
moves ever onward,
with sharpened blade, 
to slice away memories, 
and bestow;

weaker eyesight,
diminishing strength,
brain skips,
plus popping  joints.

Alas, twilight stops...

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Little Toy Soldiers going off to war
None will ever live to  see age twenty four
None of them even  know what they're fighting for
Little Toy Soldiers going off to war

The world has always been this way
With Emperors and Kings
Fighting with toy soldiers
And the glory...

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On sunny summer mornings
the myriad markers gleam 
and shimmer dreamlike
in the distance.
Visions from the stillness rise,
but only of the past,
for in this place,
time has come
to sudden end.

Glimpsed on headstone faces
in plain and shallow font
are etchings of their names.
Forefingers trace the course
of letters and summon memories,
suddenly...

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angels descended
on a bloody battlefield…
     soldiers’ spirits rise

Heaven’s door opens
Freedom fighters’ souls enter
Forgiveness is found
“Thou Shalt Not Kill” set aside
By a righteous Creator


(Senryu and Tanka)

*By Carolyn Devonshire for Russell’s “A Mesh of Forms” contest...

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Wearily I walk this rutted road
Knowing this life led yet is mine
Due is all ransoms for my soul
To every witness I leave behind
Lift my heart to spare no love
To be a light for shadows cast
I draw my strength from God above
With hope that seeks the...

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Onward Christian Soldiers
(Chivalry Dead)

God’s crusade upon them laid
a stubborn suit of mail brocade.

Knights Templar, Teutonic thugs
Mercenaries out for blood.

In guarantee of resurrection. 
Skull bludgeoning insurrection.

For every heathen to the cemetery
Pope so grants indulgence plenary.  

Urban calls to cut out “sin.”
with war for Jesus, champion.

Death...

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"...when power narrows the areas of man’s concern, 
poetry reminds him of the richness
and diversity of his existence...” 
--John F. Kennedy

~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~


Soldiers of our armed forces,
Iraq, Afghan, Lebanon, many shores,
Light the way like liberty blazing torches

They fight heat, bugs, sand, tough faces,
urban warfare, darkness, crashed doors,...

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A SOILDERS THOUGHTS

I cannot sleep tonight
rarely can I sleep in the day
My grip is tight and my eyes alert
so you can have a safe place to lay;

There are eyes that watch my every move
eyes of fiery red
Hoping to catch me slip an inch
hoping to see...

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He sits in a wheelchair pushed to the curb.  The people around him move aside to assure he is able to see.  His shrunken body  a shell of what it used to be.  His breathing labored, aided by the tube that...

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SOLDIERS

Crossing the world; ground, sea and air
Giving our country great care

These mighty warriors helping us in times of need
Doing us all a very good deed.

Defending and protecting from foreign invaders
Traveling across mountains, desserts and glaciers. 

Fighting along with our gallant flag
Proudly raising it high, never...

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He gets up at 4 a.m, and puts on his ACU’s
And laces up his combat boots
He is my man, this is my life
For I am a soldiers wife
He means the world to me
He is my hero and who I want to be
When he is gone...

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Give me reason to live, give me reason to love. Fill my soul full of hope light the stars up above. Let my eyes see the beauty that women desire, let my heart beat with wings to soar high and higher. If none of these...

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All the Anzacs have faded back into the past
And the old men now rest with their mates
We can hope they play 2 up and still have a beer
Now they’ve entered the heavenly gates

We have cause to remember the men who died young
How they fought to...

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