Please bear with me this week as I share with you two of my poems. I am not, in any way shape or form, a poet, but I was forced (kicking and often screaming) to write poetry for my MA in Creative Writing by the amazing and sadly missed Mr Nigel Jenkins from The Gower. A lovely man and an inspirational teacher.
I produced two poems over that time which I am rather proud of and so I have decided to share my favourite, a few days before Remembrance Day and the second will be posted at the weekend.
This one is called ‘Hourglass‘ and records the moment we lined the route for one of our comrades whose coffin was being taken into a Chinook to fly him home from the Gulf. This is, therefore, in Remembrance of several people.
- Sergeant John Nightingale for whom the poem is written.
- Lance Corporal Pete Mahoney who sadly took his own life soon after returning from Iraq.
- Flight Sergeant Anna Irwin, a truly inspirational person and the light of everyone’s life taken far too soon by cancer, and who was standing next to me during this parade.
- And also of course, to Mr Nigel Jenkins who made me write the poem in the first place.
HOURGLASS
Together
Shoulder to shoulder
Dread, pain, sorrow and fear.
A thought, a sigh, the closeness of friends.
The bright flash of flag draped over
someone we hold dear.
The Chinook’s maw
Black
Open
Beckons.
Dusty desert boots
Six shoulder the load.
A stifled sob, gritted teeth, a silent tear.
The padre, the bible, the bugler, a sandstorm.
Two rows of uniforms
Left in silence
Alone.
