Elegy For the Brooding Soldier

On the verge of saintly 

hallowed woods, earth’s anguish

echoes time’s chimes 

to grievous undertakings

you and I have walked together 

through the spring sleeve 

of an April morning 

to the grim door of Bang’s madness. 

So many lost sons, long ago 

hewed from an indurate clay 

les folies exaspérantes 

d’une époque folle …  

There, among the wind swept 

faces pinched tight 

against the late ripening 

light, in the shade 

of a brooding soldier, 

I ask the red kite 

circling overhead -- which 

of all the squandered poets

love cursed odes left 

to wrawl the hell licked fields 

of an endless Flemish night --

do we mourn the most? 

Ken e Bujold

Reviews

[Lorry]

I wonder of all the poets who have felt and thought the same thing Ken. The poets who were lost left us a valuable reminder of the senselessness of war, yet there are still conflicts, no matter how much blood and ink is spilled to warn us that it only brings loss to both sides and is therefor futile.
How many times do we hear the phrase "Will we ever learn?" before concluding that the answer has and will remain to be, apparently not.
Maybe the poets should be in charge. One thing is for sure, they couldn't do much worse a job than those before them.

[Coyote Poetry]

So many WW2 and WW1 poets lost to war. I researched them and they left us with honest words Ken. Thank you for sharing the amazing poetry. You made the reader think and ponder.
Coyote

[Julie McCarthy (juliesp..]

War is senseless
It achieves nothing
We got freedom from the first two world wars but those soldiers would be very sorely pissed off at the state of the world now and how we have evolved the last five or so years in rapid decline
I loved your poem
It’s deep too deep for the likes of simple me but loved it

[Ken e Bujold]

Senseless indeed, but a narcotic the species will never kick, unfortunately. Poem a reflection on reading some of the WWI poets lately and memories of being at the Canadian memorial outside of Ypres in Belgium

thanks for review J

[Julie McCarthy (juliespenhere)]

Thanks kindly
My uncles and dad served in ww2 and my brother is a Vietnam vet but it’s those lost years they had living a normal life and of course the ones that lost their lives
I believe strongly govt and leaders plan the wars and use it to their Selfish advantages everything is a well strategised plan unfortunately

[W. Barrett Munn]

The language is intense and deeply felt; my lexicon may be a quarter of yours on my best days. My guess is you were visiting a WWI battle site that commemorates a Canadian war hero and pondering on the poets who wrote of that early war, perhaps Auden?
Whatever, it is a beautifully crafted poem.
PS: curious you posted this and I posted mine about the Vietnam War Memorial.

Winston

[Ken e Bujold]

Close in your choice of poet. Sassoon hangs heavy over this. The Brooding Soldier is a Canadian memorial to WWI just outside St Julien in Belgium. Monument to the 2nd battle of Ypres. Poem itself was a carve-out from another which wasn't progressing as i wished. The opening verse, the french, and the red kite simply wouldn't leave me be. over a period of a few weeks, I kept coming back to the original, but wouldn't work. As a new poem emerged this one was born/

[W. Barrett Munn]

I figured out the Brooding Soldier memorial, and the red kite a bird, and I figured WWI but I was unsure of Belgium and which poet. But I guessed it must have been in the early 1900s, which I have just been reading. The Frech I had to search for translation.

I'm glad you didn't abandon this. It is really good.
W.

[Ken e Bujold]

I hesitated a wee bit over the French. but in the end, I opted for it. WWI was the result of a grand conceit on the part of the Euro empires. And nowhere illustrated the folly of the times quite as much as gay Paree.

[W. Barrett Munn]

I like the French. It seemed fairly easy to work out meaning but I like to double check myself.
read moreI like the French. It seemed fairly easy to work out meaning but I like to double check myself.

Winston

[D. Mansfield]

Very nice writing, thank you for sharing.

[Perdition]

Oh wow.. how do we interpret? How do we charge the fields licking the wounds of earth and deciding what flamenco night broods the worst of the squandered poets that love has lost among the sons. This is such a strange and curious reminder that “April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land” Opening lines from “The Wasteland” (Mr. Eliot), but a thousand times over I could still be found the curious reader in wonderment while the French indulgence of words conveys it in the best of light. I am left a soldier of both poem and kite to your language and emotion in this unique elegy. In short you have left me staggering as I hope from most poems I encounter. Beautiful offering and now I can fall into your unique intimidations as the lost soul. Well done as beautifully conveyed Ken !!

[Ken e Bujold]

interesting P, your comment about TS. Poem is definitely mining the vein of the WWI poets and the imagists, all of which are favored reading. This is part of a longer work that didn't work. Over the course of my research for it I was led to the Canadian memorial The Brooding Soldier just outside of Ypres, which i have visited. After a bit of time and reflection, I carved the opening V, the French lines, and the red kite to my reflections on the fallen to the thought of what was lost, may have been, had those young lads had the life to write their poetry for another half century or more.

[Perdition]

Such senseless things as war and these interrupted lives … it justifies so little if anything when we are left to believe our truth of histories and stop to think of why and who that may have changed everything but was killed or worse unable and left to the demise of bullets and bombs.And truthfully over what? Reminds me of the soldier that had Hitler in his sites and couldn’t bring himself to waste this young man’s life in simply shooting him. Imagine letting Hitler go free because you couldn’t your conscience couldn’t do it? I can truly understand it but WOW! WWI obviously. God Bless William Stafford and all those other men who were ostracized for choosing not to kill because it was what
they were taught and believed in otherwise by their Churches and Sacred Bible. Not an easy decision. Powerful words Ken… I just truly hope they reach the world in time!

[Soren]

This reads so classically it sounds almost Shakespearian. I lover particularly the lines:
"On the verge of saintly
hallowed woods, earth’s anguish
echoes time’s chimes
to grievous undertakings"
Masterfully done a favorite that I will remember.

[Ken e Bujold]

thanks for glowing compliment Soren. Glad you enjoyed the poem and have found something to carry off from it

ken