\nPasschendaele…..<\/span>Ypres…<\/span>and Somme
\n…………….<\/span>three ovals float
\n…………….<\/span>on the cold wall
\nplastered whiter
\n………………………………..<\/span>than their bones,
\nyoung, khaki\u2019d,
\n…………………..<\/span>their bud-tender eyes
\n…………………..<\/span>premonition filled.<\/p>\n
.<\/span> ………….<\/span>Thomas Isaac and Ben. \u00a9 Lorna Staveley Anker, 1914 – 2000<\/p>\n From The Judas Tree<\/strong>, edited by Bernadette Hall, Canterbury University Press, 2013<\/p>\n Reproduced with permission.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n As soon as I read Ellen’s Vigil<\/em> I was struck by the way in which it distills the terrible loss war inflicts on families, tearing gaps in the hearts of those left behind that can never be filled; at best, only thinly papered over.<\/p>\n Bernadette Hall, the editor of the recently published Lorna Staveley Anker anthology, The Judas Tree<\/strong>, also provided the following note:<\/p>\n “When Lorna was a very small child, she lived for a time with her grandmother, Ellen. This poem arises from her wartime memories of her grandmother\u2019s grief stricken household.\u00a0 This is the most frequently published of Lorna\u2019s poems. It was included in Lauris Edmond\u2019s 1986 collection of prose and poetry ‘Women in Wartime’<\/strong>.\u00a0 And in the first Australasian volume of women\u2019s poetry ‘Kiwi & Emu\u2019<\/strong>‘, 1989, edited by Barbara Petrie. A copy of the poem lies in the tomb of the Unknown Warrior in front of the National War Memorial in Wellington.”<\/em><\/p>\n —<\/p>\n “LORNA STAVELEY ANKER was born in 1914. She used to joke that this was the cause of the First World War. In truth, the poems in this fine collection reveal her as New Zealand\u2019s first woman war poet. There are poems here that arise from her childhood memories of Kaiser Bill. Three of her uncles died in France.<\/p>\n She was a \u2018war widow\u2019 in the Second World War, one of the civilian casualties who make up what is known as \u2018the unsung generation\u2019” — from The Judas Tree<\/strong><\/p>\n Staveley Anker began her involvement with poetry in her fifties. … During her lifetime three books were published, two by her family and one through McBrearty and Associates, and her work was included in anthologies, including war anthologies and Canterbury-based publications.” — from Landfall <\/a>Review<\/a> Online,<\/a> review by Mary Macpherson<\/a>.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Ellen\u2019s Vigil ……..Benjamin……..Isaac…….Tom Passchendaele…..Ypres…and Somme …………….three ovals float …………….on the cold wall plastered whiter ………………………………..than their bones, young, khaki\u2019d, …………………..their bud-tender eyes …………………..premonition filled. . Ellen, her three boys gone, ………………transplanted seventy years ……………………from Lurgan\u2019s linen no longer counts crops ……………………………………in season …..but digs, diligently, delicately, …………………………………….digs down ……………………………………….further down …..her spade searching ……………………her garden […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22256"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25407,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22256\/revisions\/25407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nEllen,
\nher three boys gone,
\n………………<\/span>transplanted seventy years
\n……………………<\/span>from Lurgan\u2019s linen
\nno longer counts crops
\n……………………………………<\/span>in season
\n…..<\/span>but digs, diligently, delicately,
\n…………………………………….<\/span>digs down
\n……………………………………….<\/span>further down
\n…..<\/span>her spade searching
\n……………………<\/span>her garden for
\n……….<\/span>three lost sons
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n.<\/span><\/p>\nAbout The Poem:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/judas_tree-200x300.jpg\" "\\"judas_tree\\"")
<\/a>I am currently featuring a series of poems for Tuesday themed around \u201cwar\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \u2014 because I believe poetry often encapsulates the realism of war and has done so, in terms of modern poetry, for the past century.<\/p>\nAbout The Poet:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/TuesPoem.jpg\" "\\"TuesPoem\\"")
<\/a>To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub<\/strong> and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here<\/strong><\/a> or on the Quill<\/strong> icon <\/strong>in the sidebar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"