TUESDAY POEM - Wars and Journeys

World War I poet Wilfred Owen is at the Tuesday Poem hub this week with his powerful anti-war poem Dulce Et Decorum Est - posted by Christchurch poet Andrew Bell along with the a copy of the original complete with crossings out. Andrew says: 

Like many people, I suffered a sense of disquiet at the recent news of Osama Bin Laden’s death at the hands of US Navy Seals in Pakistan. Most people do not dispute that Bin Laden had masterminded some terrible atrocities, but the manner of his death and the scenes of jubilation on the streets of America only served to fuel a sense of unease that the victor had acting with no more morality than the victim. 

So I think Wilfred Owen’s poem serves as a timely and timeless reminder that acts of war are not glorious and that patriotism can be a dangerous tool in the hands of those with agendas to serve.

The way a poem like Owen's can journey across the centuries its power and meaning intact is discussed in the blog comments. And 'Journeys' it seems is a theme in this week's Tuesday Poem output. In the Tuesday Poem sidebar, where the 30 Tuesday Poets link their posts, you can find Thomas Hardy's 'Heredity' about genes travelling through time, Cavafy's 'Ithaka' - as much about travelling through a life as travelling to an island - and Eileen Moeller's 'Point of View' which takes as its starting point a 15 century painting of the birth of Christ which includes the road travelled by Mary in the background. 

It says, be mindful of the crossroads,
how pregnant they are 
with the possibility of miscarriage.

There's another poem about mothers and a journey of sorts (up and down the swimming pool) in 'Learning to Swim' by Helen Heath, Alicia Ponder ventures into dark forests with a revamped fairy tale, and Mary McCallum has written a poem in the shape of a python which is about another journey: both a lover (and a snake) leaving - although the lover is not so much a snake as a ... chicken. You can also click on The Riders of Rohan's poem from Lord of the Rings! And there's much more besides, including two other takes on the age old themes of 'war and peace' : 'Strange Peace' by Andrew Bell, and 'The War is Over' by Bernadette Hall. Pay Tuesday Poem a visit this Tuesday - it's stimulating and fun.