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The Game – Christmas 1914

Jean Maskell

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 The ball stops by my foot.
Like players on a chess board
We hold our positions.
Waiting for the next move.

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 Frozen silence.
Only a mist of breath on our lips.
Cold, cold lips,
Unmoving.

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 Just the rattle of halters,
Like altar bells at a distance,
As the horses
Shake and flare at the stabbing frost.

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 A sob in my throat.
I was a boy once.
The Hun, misty through tears,
Watches.

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 I lift my foot in the old familiar way,
And kick.
Under the arching ball,
Men, who will soon die, come alive.

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 The game has begun.

© Jean Maskell December 2014

Notes

To commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the Christmas Truce 1914

Editor’s Note: One of the most moving poems on the Truce. Thank you and welcome to Football Poets, Jean.
Great words. More please.

Very much our Football Poets on Facebook Christmas Truce Poem of the Week.

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Jean is an artist and writer.

See more of Jean’s work at….


see Jean’swork at Art in Liverpool

A ceramic Christmas cake sculpture to honour the memory of the Christmas truce is on display at the Rathbone Gallery.

The exhibition, Time For Reflection also features a poem by the artist entitled The Game.

Artist and writer, Jean Maskell said, “The Christmas truce was a remarkable event and reminds us of the strength of the human spirit to keep compassion and hope alive, whatever the circumstances.

As a Ceramic artist, I chose to make a cake from clay, because mud and clay caused the soldiers so much difficulty and discomfort. It was as if Nature and the very Earth was in turmoil under their feet.

A Christmas cake would have been an important reminder of home for the troops, particularly as it was their first Christmas away from their families. The cake, detailed with photographs of British and German soldiers, represents the trenches, which is now their new home. Like the Christmas truce, the cake turns something negative into something positive.”

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/the-game-christmas-1914/