Men who a few short months before the slaughter Had voted Socialist, And who had voted internationalist, Who had struck for higher wages, Against their respective employers and Capital, Were now once more united In common purpose and on common land – Propertyless, Fritz and Tommy met in No Man’s Land, And briefly shared a […]

When War broke out, the British public cried “We’ll be in Berlin by Christmas”. But by Christmas hundreds of thousands had died, As Mons, The Marne, Ypres and Messine cut Down the youth of Europe, while Flanders’ flood Drowned dying, dead and alive. Summer’s dream Was swamped by winter’s mud, rats, death and blood In […]

A man can be wise And yet possess no wisdom Apart from his teeth.

So there’s the lost glove again, Down behind autumn’s withered flowers, Token of a spring-promise Sunday planting, Then gone like love’s forgotten hand, Or the unrecognised signature Of some unremembered goalkeeper.

The Thames and Severn Canal Was just like every other canal I’ve ever been on, As I cycled along by lock, bridge and wharf, With meadow and green Cotswold Hill, Sluice gate and sun bleached red brick mill, Church, cottage and manor house wall, All following one another in symmetry and order, And just like […]