The Clever Observer

The Clever Observer

Entries Tagged as 'Songs of Sorrow'

A world at war


Not now my darling the world is at war
the factions fighting on every conceivable shore.

What are we doing, how can it be stopped,
this madness of men at the top
fighting for war on every single front?

The answer so simple
I must have been mad to ignore the signs,
those of the imperialists fighting on that hill
where houses of white dictate the outcome
of the simple-minded who blink at the wink
of those most devious men.

I know as I too believed
from the first moment the bombing stopped
that war was waging
on another completely other front –
devious, underhanded, covert they say,
but in reality it is the likes of us
they want to be kept at bay.



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August 19th, 2013
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One more breath before I die…


Gradually, gradually as I go
something I sense tells me
my life-source is very low.

Someone comes and whispers low
I cannot tell who though
for loss of consciousness
is upon my life now.

Help me to remember
those with whom I have known and fought
men of valour, courage –
beyond a man’s normal everyday thought.

Give me the courage too
as I do pass over this world
one more breath before I die
to say a big thank you
to those few
for giving me love and care.

And too a life here on Earth
to get to know some part
that I previously, in the normality of life,
did not, about myself, did know.

June 26th, 2011
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“Victory” a word a coward shouts


A crime, a crime, a criminal I will be
for having survived
such mental torment daily
upon a blood-letting scene.

God or who or what ever you may be
have forged some hearts into a hell-like,
war-mongering disease.

God, you are the most hideous of beings
to allow little ones as young as these
dying badly from such horrific injuries.

Grant me peace that when I die
my heart does return somehow
to force some peace and love around
before I scream of victory.

As from where I lie right now
‘victory’ is a word a coward shouts
one without a heart of peace, but war.

No one with whom I have fought
ever more does want to be
part of a history destined to war.

So battle cry and sing or shout
my mantra, my cry, my song will be…

God of the heart of humanity
grant unto me
a love I want to feel
and be expressing in my life
now and ever more
even if for a day or two at least
I will have recovered some part of me
out of this hellish war.

One so evil,
who on Earth declared it so violently
without even a word of reasonable
human decency?

June 26th, 2011
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Echoes of Somme Mud

I had to be alone,
but as soldiers clamber over hill
and rugged blasted terrain
huddled whenever possible
to feel their living flesh –

For all, but the very few to remain
were lost
lying deep,
entrenched
upon a blood-drenched and squalid soil

My heart a mess, my mind ever vigil,
but terribly confused
I knew my time was all but up
and yet with these I had a one last goodbye
before an impending dawn of more,
much more of the same.

What horrid, horrible landscape I see,
no grass of green no more.

And whence one is able – the mud,
the stench lay here above our throat
to inhale the messiness and confusion of war.

No-one knows whoever will be next,
but pray it be another.
And yet in that horrible, fearful way
think more about the ones at home
than here among each other.

God give us back our life
as before
the thrill, the pang has gone
the future now is what I seek
without this squalor of war.

May 25th, 2011
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From Here to Where?

The value of our dollar is dropping by the day
The value of our humanity is non-existent as they say

But what if a need arises
who is to come and rescue us
from who we have become

Unless we are to be gathered
in an attempt to undo now for the future
what previous damage we have done.

May 8th, 2011
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