Dedicated to a certain someone on these boards.
Little Bedman
Who has never seen war,
how dare you trudge
upon that distant shore?
Did the Sword bloom on a tree
in your grandiloquent garden;
that you, swallowing bitterly,
decided to profess – share
sentimentally – through that
excruciating poetic excrement
of perversely pandered verse,
the toil blooded knowledge
of the accursed? It is you, Sir,
only You, we ought curse!
Ooh, I like this.
(And for a couple different reasons…)
Please forgive me The Underground Man, for hating war with a passion.
Please forgive me rainey for writing bad poetry.
You don’t write bad poetry, DEB. Not at all. Not in my estimation. I liked TUM’s poem first and foremost because it is very well written (I have determined that the man has a true gift for words) and second because of its theme (at least the one I interpret), criticizing the presumptuousness of one who has never worn the uniform. It’s okay to criticize war (although it’s something of a trite, easy, preaching-to-the-choir target), but if I want a real soldier’s perspective, I think I’d prefer, say, John McCrae - a real soldier.
No offense intended. And this is just my interpretation mind you. To speak for TUM would be to commit the very sin I think he’s railing against.
Rainey, then my poem was badly written. It was intended as the most intense criticizm of humanity, that’s us rainey, for creating the circumstances of war, from the perspective of a dead soldier who can’t be interviewed. I tried to dishonor war. I see it as the epitome of human failure. There is no room in my tiny brain for the justification or glorification of war. Sorry George. By the way, even in my highschool days 45 years ago I could never see the purpose of Rememberance Day. Right after the recitation of “In Flander’s Fields” we stood in silence for a paltry 2 minutes to honor soldiers whose entire lives had been “stolen”. I considered that an insult. I figured we should give them an entire lifetime of vocal opposition against the ‘reasons’ for war so those who would have been soldiers could die of old age in the arms of loved ones. Had I only known that was a “trite” idea I would not have written my poem. I would have just extended that first 2 minutes of silence that has been a lifetime of silence for enough that the parade of dead soldiers continues to march across my TV screen.
The circumstances of war are as complex as humanity itself. It oversimplifies, I think, to paint all of human conflict with one broad brush. Is war bad? Well sure it is. Is it sometimes necessary? This is a far more complex question. Is self-defense necessary? Is the pursuit of freedom from enslavement necessary? These are questions humanity has grappled with since the dawn of time. I’m not sure your poem dishonored war so much as dishonored those whose very grappling with these complex questions meant more than just talk on a philosophy message board. There have been men who felt there are things in this world worth fighting and dying for, and have done just this.
But alas, I am now hijacking TUM’s thread and helping to produce a conversation that probably belongs to another part of this site. And I’m afraid I’m not the philosopher to continue it there. A mere would-be poet is all.
I do understand and appreciate the sentiment behind your poem and I am happy to leave it at that, and to also leave you with this thought: There’s no such thing as bad publicity. A Soldier’s Lament will no doubt rack up a few more views now. 
Peace, rainey.
I like poem, but as a thing-in-itself rather than any sort of attack.
If people only talked about things they’d experienced and/or were knowledgable about, there wouldn’t be much to say! For example, the “debate” about the middle east would be greatly reduced in the West (which I would welcome).
What need the author say, when he has Rainey to do him justice?