Charlie's Going Home

Gold cherry
Poem of the week

By Ed Crane

Mon, 11 Nov 2013
  • 5580 reads
20 comments
 

 

 

Packing up the guns we are going home

I’ll be riding the gun’s carriage no more

stinking of piss and chilled to the bone

with boils on my arse, unbearably sore.

But bear them I did, God only knows how

and I did my duty, fighting for right.

But was it worth it? I’m wondering now:

the faces of dead I see in the night.

But we were well back from the mud and blood

preparing the shells to drop on the Hun.

The cannon fire means my ear-drums are dud

But I’m alive – you are lucky my son.

 

And here’s to New Year nineteen-nineteen,

Better to forget the things I have seen.

Certificate 18
Poem
Miscellaneous

Comments

Submitted by scratch on

This really got to me Ed.  Especially the turn of the new year of 1919 at the end.  Wonderfully poignant.

 

Submitted by Ed Crane on

Thanks Scratch.

He was a lovely man. The only thing we know about his time there is, the guns made him deaf and he suffered from boils which were a problem when he rode on the gun carriages. I have no doubt he saw much more, but he counted himself lucky.

 

Submitted by Luke Neima on

This is our Facebook and Twitter pick of the day.

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Submitted by Ed Crane on

Thanks Luke I feel honoured on this special day!

 

Submitted by Bee on

What makes this so stunning for me, is the simplicity of statement. It's stark and told straight in a way that hits you with mental pictures and sensations. You caught the mixture of moods.

Bee

Submitted by Ed Crane on

Thanks very much Bee.... stunning? Wow thanks again!

 

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

This is so very moving, Ed.  

Tina

 

Submitted by Ed Crane on

Thanks very much, Tina

 

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Yes,good one! The tautness of the sonnet form works well and so does the closing couplet      Elsie

Submitted by Ed Crane on

Thank you very much elsie. To be complimented on a sonnet is great, since I find them rather tricky to get right.

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Excellent write, Ed, so succinct but eloquent too. It speaks of the relief of a survivor that the war has just ended, regretting the dead comrades left behind and it ends on an optimistic note with a hopeful vision of the future. I agree that sonnets are rather tricky to get right but your version reads well. 

 

 

Submitted by Ed Crane on

Thank you Luigi for your very kind comments.

 

Submitted by VeraClark on

Ed, this is a golden poem. 

 

Submitted by Ed Crane on

Thanks very much Vera

 

Submitted by jolono on

Hi Ed, ashamed to say i missed this when it was first posted. So glad I found it. Great poem said in a few words. loved it.

 

Submitted by Ed Crane on

Thanks Joe,

Don't be ashamed, there's a lot of good stuff on here, you can't see everything at once.

Cheers

Ed

 

Submitted by prettyrose on

smileyHi Ed, I hope your well,

 

What a tribute, beautifully written!! our lost hero's would be proud :))))

smiley Keep Smiling

Keep Writing xxx

Submitted by Ed Crane on

Hi Rose,

Thanks for that, I'm fine, and I'll try to keep scribbling away.

Ed

 

Submitted by celticman on

yeh, funnily enough I was talking to an old woman yesterday and he'd lied about hsi age to sign up. But his mother got him out. He signed on again two years later and lost a leg. 

 

Submitted by PoppyS on

Thank you for the link ED, painful yet so elegantly written, which does not seem to fit with what, was such a brutal war.

For reasons I do not know, WW1 moves within me, I think it something to do with the innocence of those brave men.

Strong piece of writing.

Pops ~xx~

Writing is art in pictures – Go paint poetry!