War and Remembrance OR Courage Wears Many Faces

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

Today's poem first appeared on the blog in 2016.

The Covid-19 coronavirus has plunged much of the world into another war, this time with an invisible enemy, probably the worst and hardest kind of war to fight. Fight, though, we have, as a common humanity united in its resolve to see this awful pandemic through and emerge the stronger, and hopefully the more united for it.

Courage, indeed, has many faces and has shown them all in recent months;in  the selflessness of health workers, the stoicism of victims, the tragedy of losing loved ones where often even close family were unable to be at theirs side as they passed away ... and so it goes on. The war is far from over and far from won, but the human spirit is not easily put down, and will continue to see us through until the world, hopefully, resumes a stronger sense of normality, No, nothing will ever be quite the same again, but the same spirit that wins wars will see us win this one too, of that, at least yours truly is certain.

Many men and women rarely settle down easily - if at all - into everyday life for being haunted by scenes of death and carnage they have witnessed on tours of duty around a world where civil wars and terrorist atrocities persist. Family and friends from all socio-cultural-religious backgrounds and nations need to support them as and when we can. The same principle applies to our war with Covid-19. As a common humanity, we need to support each other wherever and whenever possible; at the very least, avoid  exacerbating divisions.

In the summer of Summer, 2016 we commemorated the start of the Battle of the Somme 100 years earlier, remembering the human the face of Freedom; various cultural-religious-political face masks should not be mistaken for the real thing. Covid-19 has tested and continues to test the latter, along with the rest of us, and the various face masks we, too, are inclined to wear.

Thankfully, at least some lessons have been learned since the First World War about the effects of stress even on trained, experienced service personnel in a war zone. Covid-19 has placed us all in a war zone, untrained and inexperienced alongside those best equipped to help us, and to whom we owe an immeasurable vote of thanks.

Around the world, the battle against coronavirus continues. Around the world, too, courage continues

 to show its many faces, ensuring that we may lose a few battles along the way, but we can and will win the war.

 WAR AND REMEMBRANCE, ALL INCLUSIVE

Jim was just seventeen

when war broke out;

he was courting a girl

called Jane…

They held hands at the fair,

dreaming and planning 

for the future, celebrating

their lives together

Jim was just eighteen

when he joined up,

all his mates did too,

everyone admiring

the uniform, waving him off

with bursts of cheers

while Jim’s ma and Jane

saved their tears

Jim was just nineteen

as war took its toll,

savaged the soul, senses

caving in till no place

left to run like a fox in a hole,

hounds hunting it down,

waiting for the end, shivering

for sheer terror

And who’d know any better

than soldiers of the crown,

the human spirit once broken

no use to anyone?

All was haste, no time to waste,

the pack denied its reward,

Jim (refused a blindfold) shot

at dawn for a coward

Copyright R. N. Taber 2002, 2016, 2020

[Note: Revised (2012) from an earlier version that appears under the title ‘Unsung Hero, in First Person Plural by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2002 and subsequently in Poppy Fields 2007, Poetry Now [Forward Press] 2006.