IRISH-IN-UK-L Archives

From: "Jean R." <>
Subject: [Irish-in-UK] "Wartime Memories, " Barbara HILL & "For The War," Alan SHARP
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 23:38:33 -0700

WARTIME MEMORIES

Airfields
Empty buildings
Derelict
Memories, linger
Like ghosts
Memories of men
In uniform
Standing by
Waiting for the call
They dash, Take to the air,
Meet the foe.
Poppies
Now grow
And flow
On Remembrance Day.

-- Barbara Hill, 'Poet's Corner,' "Best of British, Past & Present" magazine
Nov. 1998.

FOR THE WAR

The siren wailed, summer was gone -
the war had come.
We sat, Mum, Dad and me, close in the hall.
Those hateful rubber masks, we put them on
For gas will come, we'd heard from Mrs. Jones,
And then we'd all be bombed to
smithereens.
Official line -- "All children must leave town."
Big Sister had already gone - in charge
Of other children. I could join her there,
But preparations, parting and arrival,
Still remain a blank to me today.

Yet I remember now those winter nights,
Those sweet clandestine suppers in our room;
The snow, the park, the church on Sunday
twice
And Smedley's factory, timber-laden boats
Upon the Nene - fragmentary memories of
Those peaceful months - then home for
Easter so
That we could be together for the war.

-- Alan Sharp, 'Poet's Corner,' "Best of British, Past & Present"
magazine Nov. 1998.

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• [Irish-in-UK] "Wartime Memories, " Barbara HILL & "For The War," Alan SHARP by "Jean R." <>