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Poems tagged ‘Munich Air Crash’

Broken Bones

John Paul Kirkham

Thursday, September 2nd, 2021

How many people can claim that
breaking their leg
saved their life
twice

Seconds from signing for those Red Devils
shattered bones stunned the cheering crowds
on that Saturday afternoon
put paid to those Korean battlefields

Well convalesced and working for the GPO
manning the top floor midnight Dial Tower shift
he took the call from the cold
and broke the news first of more broken bones
and death
in Munich

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Harry’s greatest saves

John J O’Connor

Monday, February 17th, 2020

As passengers moaned and writhed with pain
some were saved by Harry
from Coleraine.
As injured victims for life did beg
back into the plane dived Harry Gregg.

A Man United and Northern Ireland great
A hero in February of 58
Playing with United less than a year
on that fateful day he showed no fear.
An accomplished keeper
calm and brave
he could be counted on
to pull a top shelf save.
But for all the saves
he made as a pro
the best of the lot
were in the Munich snow

R.I.P Harry

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Harry Gregg ~ The Man Who Didn’t Just Save Goals

Crispin Thomas

Monday, February 17th, 2020

sometimes we judge our players
by the way that they behave
a striker for his scoring
and a keeper for his saves
we even tag some heroes
and one deserves that claim
a man who didn’t just save goals
Harry Gregg his name

the day is still etched in my mind
and I remember then
I cried aloud next morning
when I was only ten
and on that day we lost perhaps
the greatest football side
but Harry rescued those he could
we speak his name with pride

and just thirteen days later
so many team mates gone
he took the field again once more
determined to go on
and later in the Final
the first one that I saw
they bundled him into the net
as Bolton’s Lofthouse scored

sometimes we judge our players
by the way that they behave
a striker for his scoring
and a keeper for his saves
we often tag them heroes
and one deserve that claim
a man who didn’t just save goals
Harry Gregg his name

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The Day We Lost A Football Team ~ Remembered

Crispin Thomas

Wednesday, February 5th, 2020

if you were alive
child woman or man
you remember the day still
like yesterday
like Lennon like Kennedy
or the day we landed on the moon
the day we woke to realise
we’d lost a football team

that moment when everything
slowed to a moan
like singles when the power would go
or 78s on out of turn gramophones
the day we woke to realise
we’d lost a football team

so young then all life before me
and so in awe of maybe just maybe
the greatest team we ‘d ever spawned
and for so many of those we lost
their lives too so clearly just begun
but all that changed
all gone upon a runway to nowhere
the day we woke to realise
we’d lost a football team

the morning dawned
to find you
staring into your tea
not speaking at breakfast
gazing in disbelief
at grainy snowy shots
in muddled black and white
there upon the table
the day we woke to realise
we’d lost a football team

what point school today?
must I go mum?
we didn’t even support United
but united we all were then
when fate cast that shadow
one cold Munich afternoon
upon our game upon our world
I just remember how sick I felt inside
so sad so sad
the day we woke to realise
we’d lost a football team

watching the heartbreaks
on our new tv
loved ones parents friends
as bedside vigils unfolded before our eyes
Duncan Edwards Frank Swift
Tommy Taylor Roger Byrne 23 in all
the names go on.
where have they gone
where too those fifty years?

and on that day – as this
we think of them
as then as now
the way we felt
the helplessness
the day we woke to realise
we’d lost a football team

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Source: http://footballpoets.org/news/poem-tags/munich-air-crash/