7 March 2022

Poem

Ukraine March 7th 2022
     
Once upon our TV screens
War unfolds as if in scenes
From some technicolour dream
Though bombs aren’t always as they seem...
“There are no threats to the civilian population”.

“Just one toy Oleksander!” we said.
He took his old teddy from under his bed.
We piled in the car and headed west,
As options went, it appeared the best...
“There are no threats to the civilian population”.

Fires, no water and bodies in the street,
Old Baba Shevchuk under a sheet.
War planes cleave our darkening skies
Targeting the tyrant’s lies...
“There are no threats to the civilian population”.

Top picture  ©Diego Herrera Carcedo/AP

20 comments:

  1. It's all just too awful for words. I think of them all day and half the night.
    Mans inhumanity to Man.

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    Replies
    1. What can we do? On reflection, Britain choosing Brexit must have emboldened Putin for it made The European Union seem weaker.

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  2. A moving poem YP., but how I wish that the circumstances were different, and you had no need to write on such a tragic subject.

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    Replies
    1. A month ago I would never have anticipated writing such a poem.

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  3. I've just read that Putin is now offering Ukrainian refugees a "safe" corridor to Russia or Belarus. Is the rest of the world still going to sit by and do nothing.

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    Replies
    1. It's like Hitler offering fleeing jews safe passage back to Berlin.

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  4. Lovely words.
    It breaks my heart. It's like people forget what war is like, and who really gets harmed, all for a spot of land and a little more power.

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    Replies
    1. If Putin's Russia were to successfully enslave Ukraine, the rebuilding would come at enormous cost that Russia can ill afford.

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  5. The suffering is heart breaking. All we can do is donate to help them and to pray for peace.

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    Replies
    1. I am an atheist but I say "Amen" to that my friend.

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  6. This is not going to end soon or well.

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  7. Great poem. The civilian deaths we've been seeing are heartbreaking. Putin is a monster.

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  8. Innocents dying, for what?

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  9. Yes, if Putin succeeds, what will they do with all of the death, destruction and rubble they have caused? Makes no sense. No one wins...
    What a sad, touching, heartbreaking poem.

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  10. How, just how, does one man and his faithful compatriots manage to create a war that sends shivers down all the spines of Europe. Our pain and sadness is nothing compared to the Ukraine's people's misery who trudge along the roads to borders and sanctuary.

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  11. Well done, YP. This is very moving.

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  12. The hills and rivers of the lowland country
    You have made your battle-ground.
    How do you suppose the people who live there
    Will procure firewood and hay?

    Do not let me hear you talking together
    About titles and promotions;
    For a single general's reputation
    Is made out of ten thousand corpses.

    Ts'ao Sung. C.E. 879
    Translated by Arthur Waley (1889-1966) English orientalist.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Russian invasion: 'Kremlin coup against Putin is now possible'/Spectator TV.
    March 6, 2022. The Spectator. YouTube.

    Former MI6 Chief on the Ukraine & Russian Conflict /Oxford Union.
    March 1, 2022. Oxford Union. YouTube.

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  14. Does he lie?
    Like a railway sleeper.
    forever and ever, Amen
    He must be stopped!

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  15. Where Have All the Flowers Gone. Long time passing. When will we ever learn?

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