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Remembrance Day

Stuart Butler

Sunday, November 11th, 2012

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Haiku for Nympsfield War Memorial

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 As I write these lines,
The young men of the village
Arrive for the match.

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 Nympsfield village,
Catholic sanctuary,
High-up on the wolds.

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 And at the cross-roads,
A sentinel-crucifix
Honouring the dead.

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 This cross, once shattered,
Lying in some forlorn hope,
Out in No Man’s Land.

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 Brought here from the Somme,
Repaired and resurrected,
Life and Death conjoined.

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 Last gasp on a fag,
Then it’s out over the top,
Ref blows the whistle.

8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 The laughter of youth,
Innocent carefree minutes –
Who would think of war?

9 Leave a comment on verse 9 0 Just as once before,
Those memorialised names
Played, too, in the sun.

© STUART BUTLER

Notes

Forest Green’s pitch is down a street called Another Way: no wonder. Green Union Jacks, a brass band, sponsored by Ecotricity. It really is an example of nominative determinism. I’ve walked past there twice in the last week – once to visit a Neolithic burial ground and once to visit a war memorial, with a crucifix brought from the Somme. Can there be another ground like it in the country? I wrote the above on Saturday November 10th. After making my notes, I had lemonade in the Rose and Crown, a walk around the Roman Catholic Church, and then wandered over to the village football pitch for a think. Whilst pondering, the local team arrived to change and run out for a kick-about before the start of the match. This coincidence of time and space serendipitously and subsequently determined my writing.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/remembrance-day/