Long Flanders Poems

"The White Lady of Skipsea"


Last night I dreamt 
I dreamed of you
a kind of dream 
within a dream

Diaphanous, 
my soul escaped, 
this firmament,
my immaculate heart
held hands, my fingers 
did entwine with 
handsome Morpheus

Crystal radiate
twin gossamer...

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RED

One hundred years ago in Pollockshaws
A man was laid to rest,
From humble beginnings to a martyr
They buried Scotland’s best.

A man who stood for the people
A man unshaken and proud,
Till the imperialist and capitalist murderers
 Connived...

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World War 1 

The Sergeant

The rose cannot compete
with the sweet smell of death,
only her image can forgive.
 Laid upon the silence
of another boys coffin,
which hides this journey in life.

Your shame will not bring him back.
So...

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Tim was a poet but lost for words as he pondered the meaning of the cross

Sat by the road side of his inner world and wondered which way to proceed

His bones were weary his skin...

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NINETEEN FORTY TWO
by
JOHN M. ARRIBAS


As a young man in Jersey I wanted to be a cop
One sunday morning that dream came to a stop
Our nation had been a victim of a vicious attack
By an aggressive...

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“What is he, this lordling, that cometh from the fight?”
by William Herebert, 14th century
translation by Michael R. Burch

Who is he, this lordling, who staggers from the fight,
with blood-red garb so grisly arrayed,
once appareled in lineaments...

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as if Monet had planted water lilies in Babylon

          hanging gardens at the heart of a canvas of joy

       ...

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War Horse by Steven Cooke

Taken from Cloven fields, 
Where skylark and Grouse Linger.
Into the bowels of a troopship,
No scent of Morning Dew, No Bird song
Only sweat and urine,
And the distant sounds of war. 
No light,...

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>River Orwell and a Poppy field
By Stanley Russell Harris
(The mad Author)

I went out with the wife today.
We walked by the River Orwell I say.
Tide was out, but breeze was swell.
Ensured there was no stinking town...

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Here lies the gallon of horse’s blood
and soldier lies beneath this hope now dead,
trapped within mans sin
waiting for bayonets kiss.

In this moment of war, these seconds of time
the shadow of foe merges into one
and fate...

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Just a short story of the joys of living with a cat, a kelpie, a labrador.
Sometimes they play in a peaceful house, sometimes it’s like a war.
Like this morning, the red dog played tug of...

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Courage of Youth, Battle of Ypres, Flanders Field
(A Tribute)

Tough as nails young man with a red right hand
red-fire and whiskey ran in his blood.
Courageous seed of vast and cold hard land
quick temper, power of a...

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Thanksgiving Dinner by Mario Vitale
Home for the holiday from New Orleans,

Happy as a bee in the tree making a tune so merrily We only get a glimpse of what is to come The thought to...

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NOVELTIES
by Thomas Campion
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Booksellers laud authors for novel editions
as pimps praise their whores for exotic positions.

This is my translation of a Latin epigram by the English poet Thomas Campion. In Campion’s...

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Too Many Poppies  

I don’t want a poppy
I don’t want a shield
I don’t want to visit
Rows in Flanders Fields

Another young person 
Yes a young soldier fell
They laid down their life 
What story does it...

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Uncle soldier Sammie
is too flashback	    far Saigon 
The bad memory withdrawals 
are too ganja gun smoke strong
So he pumps up the blame volume,
saying who’s dirty napalm wrong

He’s got a shaky second and...

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He fought
Strong and hard
He did
Especially since
He got that letter
He fought
As if
There was no tomorrow
Worth living for
It changed him
It saddened him
He used to laugh
Like a Kookaburra
Even among
All the whistles
Of impending death
Over there
On the Dardanelles
He’d be the...

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One hundred years ago in 1921
The 15th of May a new charity begun
Amalgamating  charities of which there were  4
The Royal British Legion set up to aid those from the great war.

Earl Haig and Tom Lister...

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At last it has arrived, 
let there be no doubt. 
That everyone goes crazy 
at the Christmas staff night out. 

Now Santa took the sleigh. 
He did not stop to think. 
For that was very...

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        Memorial Day  2000
	Dedicated
	to
	Those Left Standing
	Written: by Tom Wright
	5/8/00
	
	Monuments,
	Fashioned of assorted granite stone,
	Neatly standing,
	As if in manicured rows;
	A memorial,
	To friends and loved one's gone,
	Their numbers uncontrollable,
	For each...

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As Remembrance approaches this year
Many an adult will shed a tear
2022 and casualties still fall
Servicemen struggling to stand tall

We think it's all about two world wars
In reality it is about many many tours
Those that fell...

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On a dirty grey Monday morning a drizzle in the wind, a black car stopped,
From the car stepped an officer who gazed around looking for door numbers,
His head turned it fixed on a woman's house...

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I Remember -by Trevor McLeod

The soldiers gathered at the wreath I remember.
The coffin covered just beneath I remember.

The poppies at the corner store I remember.
The amputees the coins were for I remember.

The fighters flying through...

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'The Maid That Waits For Me'

By Joe Canning. (c) copyright 2017.. All rights reserved

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Oh tonight the moon is looking down,

As my comrades wait with me.


As I write this letter to the love



That shares my hopes...

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The soldiers gathered at the wreath I remember.
The coffin covered just beneath I remember.

The poppies at the corner store I remember.
The amputees the coins were for I remember.

The fighters flying through the sky I remember.
The...

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