A walk in Devil's Wood
The Somme, November 11, 2006
By Adam Gibson ©
In Devil's Wood
the dark green pines
reveal blackness
where glimpses of ghosts
leave their shadows and
where no birds
fly from branch to branch
and the wind in my ears
brings the deathly hum of
total silence as
the trenches remain like
scars on the face
that will never heal,
like gouges on the spirit
that you can't believe are real,
winding alone now,
uncontested,
through the trees which
have grown from scratch since
the obliteration of every stump in 1916,
and the damp ground
soaks over my shoes,
and the damp ground on which
2232 men fell dead
in the blink of an eye.
during the Battle of Bazentin Ridge.
As I turn towards the war memorial,
I feel the wind chill through every pore,
and hear the silence of this funeral ground
and see thousands of names
stare down at me from the wall.
The Somme, November 11, 2006
By Adam Gibson ©
In Devil's Wood
the dark green pines
reveal blackness
where glimpses of ghostsleave their shadows and
where no birds
fly from branch to branch
and the wind in my ears
brings the deathly hum of
total silence as
the trenches remain like
scars on the face
that will never heal,
like gouges on the spirit
that you can't believe are real,
winding alone now,
uncontested,
through the trees which
have grown from scratch since
the obliteration of every stump in 1916,
and the damp ground
soaks over my shoes,
and the damp ground on which
2232 men fell dead
in the blink of an eye.
during the Battle of Bazentin Ridge.
As I turn towards the war memorial,
I feel the wind chill through every pore,
and hear the silence of this funeral ground
and see thousands of names
stare down at me from the wall.
4 comments:
some of your finest work lately adam.
Thanks for adding me to your list Adam, you have some really fantastic writing on here. I found it both highly enjoyable and extremely inspiring. Great to see someone writing about the world from such a good Australian (!!!) pespective but not doing it full of jinjoism and cliches... FANTASTIC and thanks again for such good work.
Josie, Canberra, Australia
Wow Adam, what a find! Thanks to Sam de Brito, i have found your page. Unreal stuff. I hated poetry at school haha but your stuff is great.
How do I buy your books?
Katrina M
Thanks Katrina, appreciated. You can buy my books by going to my actual website, www.blindingsunlight.com and then to the shopping cart.
Do it through the PayPal thing there and it should all be sweet.
Any probs email me on the address on the site/
Thanks again and cheers!
Adam
Post a Comment