This is a set of poems inspired by extensive reading of autobiographies, biographies and histories of World War 1 – but the writing of these was initiated by a period just three or four years ago when train journeys between Colchester and London were subject to the most extraordinary series of delays, minor disasters, vandalism of trackside furniture and a number of other events which meant long periods sitting on the train or platform wondering whether one would ever get home that night. Thoughts of blood and death naturally surfaced at such times, and they morphed into the first of these poems. Since then, there has been a change of train operator and Abellio Greater Anglia generally ensures timely arrival at one’s planned destination, but the poems have continued to trickle out, whenever there has been a lull, into a series I generally refer to as ‘poems of love, blood and death’ – especially after a particularly bad train journey…
I plan to produce a series of accompanying black-and-white illustrations, then assemble everything into a book, but the illustrations are only in draft form at present and some poems are still being re-worked.
The poems are:
My Friend on the Wire
My Enemy, My Friend
Chasing Crows
The Storm
Home Leave
The Skull
Flight
Gallipoli
The Runner