Warpoems: combat, battlefield death, military training, Trojan war, death in battle, weapons training, casualties of war, civilian victims, wounded warriors, Iraq war, modern free verse war poetry. Read free online.
THE DEATH OF ACHILLES
Death in battle.
Patroclus Trojan War
Battlefield death.
THE DEATH OF NESTOR
Death of a war veteran; death of a soldier in old age
THIS IS A PISTOL
Training for war in a time of peace:
memories of the wars of a previous generation
CAMOUFLAGE
Poem about camouflage.
A MANTRA
Weapons training poem: on the rifle range.
SEX METAL
Iraq war; George Bush and the Iraq war; enthusiasm for war; war fever; children as casualties of war; napalm victim; discussion of war
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A WAR
Iraqwarpoem; war on television; viewing war from afar; seeing the violence of war from the perspective of Japan in the cherry blossom season.
NAGASAKI
The atomic bombing of Nagasaki, seen as a war crime. This poem focuses on the psychology of the nuclear enthusiasts, the people who drink in the horror and say, "Hey, neat stuff! The solution to all our problems!" The thermonuke maniacs are the inspiration of this poem, the people who have learnt nothing from the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
I Remember
Very personal poem about living through the days of the Cold War. This poem was written during the Cold War itself, at a time when it seemed that the inevitable destiny of human civilization was to end in global thermonuclear warfare. Not in some distant hypothetical future but in my lifetime.