Courage of Youth, Battle of Ypres, Flanders Field
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 surging flood.
Seeker of life, its promised mysteries
rash gambler with all he would ever own.
Born on ship in high wind swept,
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Categories:
ypres, conflict, death, fate, sorrow,
Form: Sonnet
Quiet Fields of Ypres
QUIET FIELDS OF YPRES
by
JOHN M. ARRIBAS
These fields are quiet and silent there is little sound
Dandelions and wild flowers cover the ground
The grasses are tall and green. The soil is soft and damp
Stillness belies the sanctity of these fields.
Ten decades ago great acts of heroism happened here.
Men risked and sacrificed their lives to save a brother
While
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Categories:
ypres, conflict, dedication, french, history,
Form: Free verse
The Menin Gate At Ypres
My Father Took me to the Menin Gate
lest I should not know that lives were lost
to make me free.
Then at the cemetery I fell asleep
while he walked along the rows on soft grass between the crosses
Then I heard the tanks roll around
a heavy grinding hell raising sound
that crunched the gravel.
Before the echo died came boots
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Categories:
ypres, war,
Form: Free verse
The Menin Gate At Ypres
My Father took me to the Menin Gate
lest I should not knot that lives were lost
to make me free.
Then at the cemetery I fell asleep
while he walked along the rows
on soft grass between the crosses.
Then I heard the tanks roll round
a heavy grinding hell-raising sound
that crunched the gravel.
Before the echo died came boots of
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Categories:
ypres, war,
Form: Free verse
Moon Over Ypres
Luna comes to paint a portrait,
each stroke fails to capture me.
I pray this moon not find its
muse in the reluctance of my
memory.
Tonight the stars above Ypres
dance, to the rocket solar flairs.
The moon tonight so strong in
indeed, for tonight my heart it
bares.
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Categories:
ypres, absence
Form: ABC
Passchendale: 3rd Battle of Ypres, 1916
Even the dead reject this blasted earth.
The ground, such as it is,
Is freshly Antidiluvean,
The corpses swim within its tumbled, heaving masses
Blood and mud the mortar
Holding the chaos together.
The sun is weak,
Ashamed to break the haze
To bring to light the obscenities transpiring here.
The whistles blow
The troglodytes emerge
From their respective holes,
Staggering towards one another
Through watery craters
Over the
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Categories:
ypres, death, fear, history, places,
Form: Free verse