White Stones

Remembering the ungrateful dead

WHITE STONES

“Now it is fifteen years you have lain in the meadow . . .

It’s a long time to lie in the earth with your honor:
The world, Soldier, the world has been moving on . . .

We are acting again like civilized beings:
People mention it at tea . . .
You can rest now in the rain in the Belgian meadow. . .”                 

                 ---Archibald MacLeish,
                                                  from ‘Lines for an Internment’
                                                                                          (1933)

Now it is many years beyond the fifteen he wrote,
and the graves have grown beyond the Belgian
meadow---now in many meadows; too many graves,
        too many names on the white stones;
too many bones lie beneath the white stones
                on distant lands;
too many names---forever young---engraved in
shiny black rock  far from the scene of their
                    sacred honor.
In Arlington the numbers grow like wildflowers
whose bloom is beautiful and all too short.

And the white stones of every military graveyard
cry out in moonlight for justice, for retribution
against the mad men who imposed their lusts,
        their arrogance, their will to power
into the lives of the innocent, the helpless,
those who wanted only to grow into old age, and
fall asleep listening to the rain fall gently on the
                good, good earth.

Reviews

[Eilis]

I read All Quiet on the Western Front several years ago and never thought of soldiers the same again. The idea of good and evil is ambiguous when addressing the battlefield because so many of those soldiers are innocents drawn into something either under false pretenses or against their will.

The part of the quote that speaks of how the world continues after war ends is particularly jarring, but we know it to be true. Sometimes we just wish not to have those things acknowledged out loud.

Your poem pays respect and honor in a way that itself acts as a memorial. The idea of all those men having their wishes but never having their wish of lying at peace alive in their own beds is so poignant. That image to end takes on double meaning as it reminds us of where they are and how they can no longer choose to hear the rain or not.

If only we could stop that will to power. Strong poem, Tom. Moving.

[CD Campbell]

There has always been a need for good men to rise up and take the battle to those who would oppress them. The problem is the division of who is considered to be good and who is the oppressor. Our race has been built upon the blood of the countless. Even when one who would be born and require us to live in peace, start a religion of great intent, would have his message be contorted and cause more bloodshed. When will it end? Never, as long as a seed of darkness lives in all of us.
So we honor our fallen. We have to. Their deaths have to have some kind of meaning. If no meaning, then we akcknowledge that we are nothing but animals and embrace the idea that our lives and thoughts are expendable.
This poem has moved me. Theres a lot conflicting emotions when the aftermath of war is brought to light. Some mothers grieve and think of their sons as great heroes, some find it all disgusting. I'm sure both types would have wanted them alive and home. Great work, sir.

[kentuck14]

CD,
Thanks for the read and the review. I was moved so by Macleish's poem speaking to the dead of WW1, that I wrote this poem. I guess I was thinking of the honored dead having to fight against men whose intentions were evil. I would think their death has some kind of meaning only in the sense that evil often must be countered with bloodshed. My rant was directed at those who cause or intend such evil. A great Man was said, "there will be wars and rumors of wars . . . these are but birth pains." It is not the majority who desire war, yet because of the evil in the hearts of the few that the many must die. Again, thanks for the comments.
T

[CD Campbell]

It's a great poem. I just started to ramble and cannot seem to stop sometimes. Have a good one.

[kentuck14]

i have the same problem!

[barleygirl]

I have a very hard time properly honoring the freedoms that have been bought by blood becuz of the way this obligation can come across as glorifying war. I love the way your poem describes how the graves are spreading like a virulent weed, but I would go a step further & suggest that CONFLICTS themselves are so constant & numerous & never-ending, that even entire conflicts fade into the mass of violence that our country seems to find inevitable . . . unavoidable . . . in short, (especially your last verse) this hammers home the power of this frustrating charade in an articulate way I really admire (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

[kentuck14]

Thank you for your comments, Margie. We live in a violent world full of violent men. It comes to us all too naturally I'm afraid.
T

[Trouble]

I like this, the emotion, the vibe. Nicely written.

[kentuck14]

Thank you for saying so.
T

[h d e rushin]

I've been to Arlington. It's more than sobering. It is a gentle/cheerful frivolous endurable importance you carry with you when you leave. It would be less burdensome if the sun didn't shine on the many crosses; if flesh wasn't so easily sacrificed out of un-proportional stubbornness and "will to power". But the poet ligates the daylight with the dawn and finds a song among the ruins....great poem my friend...dana

[kentuck14]

thank you Dana for your thoughts and compliment.
T

[Paul Bell]

Wouldn't it be great if the soldiers on both sides just decided the politicians should fight it out themselves.
But then I suppose we wouldn't hear those great words politicians always bleat out. ''Now we must win the peace.''

[kentuck14]

agreed . . . it's easy sending someone else to die.

[gram linski]

Great emotional piece, it's particularly poignant with the recent Normandy landing anniversaries,

[kentuck14]

Thanks Gram for saying so.

[R.E. Ray]

Remarkable work, Tom. This is an ageless poem. I felt your words as I recalled my many visits to Arlington and countless battlefield cemeteries.

[kentuck14]

War is a curse on mankind. thanks for reading.

[John the Baptist]

Very movingly put, Tom. The war MacLeish was writing about is now a century past, and here we are stuck in the longest of all of them, Afghanistan. I hate to sound like a defeatist, but I fear we will be singing "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" for some time yet.

[kentuck14]

Yes John . . . there will be wars and rumors of wars.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

wow this is good...those who impose...and don't fight themselves but send others to be white stones in future....
too many and the list keeps getting bigger...i hope the gentle rain can soothe their souls a bit.

and love the quote by Archibald...in my class I teach his poem "Ars Poetica"---
nicely done, Tom,
j.

[kentuck14]

Macliesh was a fine poet. Yes . . . have read his Ars Poetica. good stuff.