CMAK related poem

[Wisbech_lad]

"The Sportsmen" by Keith Douglas. Written in Tunisia, 1943.

The noble horse with courage in his eye

clean in the bone, looks up at a shellburst:

away fly the images of the shires

but he puts the pipe back in his mouth.

Peter was unfortunately killed by an 88:

it took his leg away, he died in the ambulance.

I saw him crawling on the sand; he said

It's most unfair, they've shot my foot off.

How can I live among this gentle

obsolescent breed of heroes and not weep?

Unicorns almost,

for they are falling into two legends

in which their stupidity and chivalry

are celebrated. Each, fool and hero, will be an immortal

The plains were their cricket pitch

and in the mountains the tremendous drop fences

brought down some of the runners. Here then

under the stones and earth they dispose themselves,

I think with their famous unconcern.

It is not gunfire I hear but a hunting horn.

[...................................]

Nice.

If you like I can pen my new desert war ditty which opens 'There was a young man in Buq-Buq'

[Seanachai]

Originally posted by Pheasant Plucker:

Nice.

If you like I can pen my new desert war ditty which opens 'There was a young man in Buq-Buq'

Perhaps in the Goodale thread, lad, when it gets here.

Thank you for the versification, Wisbech Lad.

[Determinant]

'Vergissmeinicht' also by Keith Douglas:

Thre weeks gone and the combatants gone,

returning to the nightmare ground

we found the place again, and found

the soldier sprawling in the sun.

The frowning barrel of his gun

overshadowing. As we came on

that day, he hit my tank with one

like the entry of a demon.

Look. Here in the gunpit spoil

the dishonoured picture of his girl

who has put: Steffi, Vergissmeinicht

in a copybook gothic script.

We see him almost with content

abased, and seeming to have paid

and mocked at by his own equipment

that's hard and good when he's decayed.

But she would weep to see today

how on his skin the swart flies move;

the dust upon the paper eye

and the burst stomach like a cave.

For here the lover and killer are mingled

who had one body and one heart.

And death who had the soldier singled

has done the lover mortal hurt.

[Breakthrough]

How about this......

'Here I sit, broken hearted'

' No CMAK yet, so I cant get started.....'

Good huh?

[...................................]

Originally posted by Seanachai:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Pheasant Plucker:

Nice.

If you like I can pen my new desert war ditty which opens 'There was a young man in Buq-Buq'

Perhaps in the Goodale thread, lad, when it gets here.

Thank you for the versification, Wisbech Lad. </font>

[Holman]

I've always liked Keith Douglas. One wonders what kind of poet he might have become in the post-war world. Unfortunately, he was killed in Normandy on June 6 (or 7?) 1944.

He also wrote an account of the desert war called "From Alamein to Zim Zim." It's said to be excellent not only as as memoir but for the strength and originality of Douglas' prose. Unfortunately the book is long out of print.