this is my first time of posting and should have gone into the 'peace poetry' group. i obviously omitted to click a button and this is not in the correct place. sorry.

this is a poem by the great war poet, wilfred owen. i have a version from youtube on my page, but have left the link here, just incase you want to hear it being read too. you can not help but be moved by this poem which describes to us fortunates, the people who have not known face to face conflict, the awful consequences of battle.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=acO1ScpFavk

Strange Meeting..

It seemed that out of battle I escaped
Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped
Through granites which titanic wars had groined.


Yet also there encumbered sleepers groaned,
Too fast in thought or death to be bestirred.
Then ,as I probed them, one sprang up, and stared
With piteous recognition in fixed eyes,
Lifting distressful hands, as if to bless.
And by his smile, I knew that sullen hall, -
By his dead smile I knew we stood in Hell.


With a thousand pains that vision's face was grained;
Yet no blood reached there from the upper ground,
And no guns thumped, or down the flues made moan.
'Strange friend,' I said, 'here is no cause to mourn.'
'None,' said that other, 'save the undone years,
The hopelessness. Whatever hope is yours,
Was my life also; I went hunting wild
After the wildest beauty in the world,
Which lies not calm in eyes, or braided hair,
But mocks the steady running of the hour,
And if it grieves, grieves richlier than here.
For by my glee might many men have laughed,
And of my weeping something had been left,
Which must die now. I mean the truth untold,
The pity of war, the pity war distilled.
Now men will go content with what we spoiled,
Or, discontent, boil bloody, and be spilled.
They will be swift with swiftness of the tigress.
None will break ranks, though nations trek from progress.
Courage was mine, and I had mystery,
Wisdom was mine, and I had mastery:
To miss the march of this retreating world
Into vain citadels that are not walled.
Then, when much blood had clogged their chariot-wheels,
I would go up and wash them from sweet wells,
Even with truths that lie too deep for taint.
I would have poured my spirit without stint
But not through wounds; not on the cess of war.
Foreheads of men have bled where no wounds were.

I am the enemy you killed, my friend.
I knew you in this dark: for so you frowned
Yesterday through me as you jabbed and killed.
I parried; but my hands were loath and cold.
Let us sleep now...

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A very moving poem and thanks for sharing it.

Yes, it has been 90 years since WWI, and nothing really has changed.

Now is the same principle as then: On one hand the war profiteers, urging on to fight, injure and kill; psychologically manipulating people into fearing and hating, while they sit back and fill their bank accounts. On the other hand, the sacrifice of human beings whom make it possible for the profiteers to gain their objectives.

Now that Obama has been elected, Lockhead Martin has promised to stand by Israel.
Well......it doesn't make me feel any better. This means that Israel will be the experimentation area for all kinds of goodies, such as F22's, mabye some more F16's, mabye even some new sophisticated killing machines, anti ballistic shields etc etc.

Just another note about the First World War.

Alfred Nobel invented the machine gun, tanks, land mines, etc, and hereby earned a fortune. At the end of his life, I guess his conscience got to him, he decided to create a Peace Fund, the Nobel Peace prize.
Meanwhile, after his death, Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany stocked up with loads and loads of new weaponry, all of which had to be tried out.
It didn't take long to get the opportunity to try out all the new weapons. Four years of WWI, and an amazing amount of arms had been manufactured and used. Millions were slaughtered.
That time was also the first time that soldiers came home shell shocked. They were immediately executed because it was an unknown phenomena, and the state thought these soldiers were cowards. 300 British soldiers have been executed because they were in shell shock.

Another interesting fact: Today in 2008, near Ypre, Belgium, where a lot of fighting went on during WWI, they still distract 2 tonnes of old WWI shells per year, still lying in the ground - 90 years later.
Can you imagine how many shells were manufactured? How much certain people earned from this?
If anyone is interested, please visit the museum site of Ypre: http://www.inflandersfields.be/#

War is a horrible vicious way to accumilate wealth and power, and that is why we still have lots and lots of wars and conflicts.

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