\n.<\/span><\/p>\n
![\"judas_tree\"](\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/judas_tree.jpg\")
<\/a>Ellen’s Vigil<\/strong> <\/em>by Lorna Staveley Anker<\/h3>\nA copy of this poem lies in the tomb of the Unknown Warrior in front of the National War Memorial in Wellington. It commemorates the loss of three of the poet’s uncles in WW1 and the effect of that loss on their mother, in particular.<\/p>\n
Benjamin\u2026\u2026..<\/span>Isaac\u2026\u2026.<\/span>Tom<\/em><\/span>
\n Passchendaele\u2026..<\/span>Ypres\u2026and Somme<\/em><\/span>
\n \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.<\/span>three ovals float<\/em><\/span>
\n \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.<\/span>on the cold wall<\/em><\/span>
\n plastered whiter<\/em><\/span>
\n \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026..<\/span>than their bones<\/em><\/span>
\n …<\/span><\/p>\nTo read the poem in full, click on:<\/p>\n
Ellen’s Vigil<\/em><\/a><\/h3>\n.<\/span>
\n![\"Summer](\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Summer-King-The-202x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Lissjenthoek – A haibun<\/strong><\/em>, by Joanna Preston<\/h3>\nJoanna’s poem commemorates is another account of the effects of war and loss within families, but the generational gap is wider, \u201cstained and smudged\u201d diaries the most direct connection \u2014 beyond bloodline and family heritage \u2014 to a lost great-uncle, “Row 21D. 4564 Corporal Stanley Coombes, 45th Battalion Australian Infantry, died 12th October 1917.”
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n “the fields of flanders \u2013<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 the rich red<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 of the cemetery gates<\/em><\/span><\/div>\nThere. Red brick and white stone; an archway anything but triumphal. We wheeled our hired bicycles through the gate-building, blinking at the transition from light to shadow to light again as we stepped out into the garden. And garden it was. Rows of lilies, ranged in front of the crosses that marked the Canadian graves. The New Zealand graves. The South African graves …”<\/span><\/p>\nTo read the full haibun, click on:<\/p>\n
Lijssenthoek<\/a><\/em><\/h3>\n.<\/span><\/p>\nNZEF Trooper 203453 <\/em>by Leigh Vickridge
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n![\"ANZAC](\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/ANZAC-Inglewood-131x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Another intergenerational poem, Leigh Vickridge\u2019s NZEF Trooper 203453, <\/em><\/strong>first featured here for ANZAC Day in 2011, records his father’s story:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\u201cHe was born at Longton Avenue<\/em><\/span>
\n in London<\/em><\/span>
\n not far from Crystal Palace<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nHigh tea on Sunday evenings<\/em><\/span>
\n with the mater and the pater<\/em><\/span>
\n then minor public school<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nGallipoli washed away all that \u2013<\/em><\/span>
\n carnage at Chunuk Bair<\/em><\/span>
\n flyblown corpses in the sun\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\nTo read the poem in full, click on:<\/div>\nNZEF Trooper 203453<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/h3>\n.<\/span>
\n![\"TheCorrosionZone\"](\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TheCorrosionZone-210x300.jpg\")
<\/a>For A Song<\/em><\/strong> by Barbara Strang<\/h3>\n\u201cFor A Song\u201d<\/em> is one of a sequence of poems Barbara wrote for and\u00a0about her\u00a0 father and specifically addresses both aspects of his WW2 experience and also the aftermath of war, as seen through Barbara\u2019s eyes, as one of his children.<\/p>\n“After it ended<\/span><\/em>
\n the war was still on<\/span><\/em>
\n around our house<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nin the thin-lipped silences<\/span><\/em>
\n and grown-ups dressed in uniform colours,<\/span><\/em>
\n navy, khaki, brown.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nMy father had been there,<\/span><\/em>
\n didn\u2019t talk about it<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n…”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nTo read the full poem, click on:<\/p>\n
For a Song<\/em><\/a><\/h3>\nTwo aspects of these poems particularly interest me. The first is that although all are by poets who reside in New Zealand, our country’s history of\u00a0 inward migration is reflected in the fact that one poem commemorates a father born in England, although serving as a New Zealand soldier (NZEF Trooper 203453<\/em>); while Joanna Preston’s great-uncle was an Australian ANZAC, not a New Zealander.<\/p>\nThe second aspect is that all four poems are written by descendants of the serving soldiers, a great-niece, a son and two daughters, but not by the soldiers or nurses themselves. If we have a NZ Wilfrid Owen<\/a>, Siegfried Sassoon, or Anna Akhmatova<\/a>, his or her fame remains unsung.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yesterday was ANZAC Day and I posted on the — apparent — dearth of NZ novels that addressed the ANZAC heritage in terms of either WW1 or WW2. The case is not the same for poetry, however. A few years ago I featured a blog series on war poetry and quite a few of those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32088","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=32088"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32108,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32088\/revisions\/32108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n Passchendaele\u2026..<\/span>Ypres\u2026and Somme<\/em><\/span>
\n \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.<\/span>three ovals float<\/em><\/span>
\n \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.<\/span>on the cold wall<\/em><\/span>
\n plastered whiter<\/em><\/span>
\n \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026..<\/span>than their bones<\/em><\/span>
\n …<\/span><\/p>\n
To read the poem in full, click on:<\/p>\n
Ellen’s Vigil<\/em><\/a><\/h3>\n.<\/span>
\n<\/a>Lissjenthoek – A haibun<\/strong><\/em>, by Joanna Preston<\/h3>\nJoanna’s poem commemorates is another account of the effects of war and loss within families, but the generational gap is wider, \u201cstained and smudged\u201d diaries the most direct connection \u2014 beyond bloodline and family heritage \u2014 to a lost great-uncle, “Row 21D. 4564 Corporal Stanley Coombes, 45th Battalion Australian Infantry, died 12th October 1917.”
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n “the fields of flanders \u2013<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 the rich red<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 of the cemetery gates<\/em><\/span><\/div>\nThere. Red brick and white stone; an archway anything but triumphal. We wheeled our hired bicycles through the gate-building, blinking at the transition from light to shadow to light again as we stepped out into the garden. And garden it was. Rows of lilies, ranged in front of the crosses that marked the Canadian graves. The New Zealand graves. The South African graves …”<\/span><\/p>\nTo read the full haibun, click on:<\/p>\n
Lijssenthoek<\/a><\/em><\/h3>\n.<\/span><\/p>\nNZEF Trooper 203453 <\/em>by Leigh Vickridge
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n<\/a>Another intergenerational poem, Leigh Vickridge\u2019s NZEF Trooper 203453, <\/em><\/strong>first featured here for ANZAC Day in 2011, records his father’s story:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\u201cHe was born at Longton Avenue<\/em><\/span>
\n in London<\/em><\/span>
\n not far from Crystal Palace<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nHigh tea on Sunday evenings<\/em><\/span>
\n with the mater and the pater<\/em><\/span>
\n then minor public school<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nGallipoli washed away all that \u2013<\/em><\/span>
\n carnage at Chunuk Bair<\/em><\/span>
\n flyblown corpses in the sun\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\nTo read the poem in full, click on:<\/div>\nNZEF Trooper 203453<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/h3>\n.<\/span>
\n<\/a>For A Song<\/em><\/strong> by Barbara Strang<\/h3>\n\u201cFor A Song\u201d<\/em> is one of a sequence of poems Barbara wrote for and\u00a0about her\u00a0 father and specifically addresses both aspects of his WW2 experience and also the aftermath of war, as seen through Barbara\u2019s eyes, as one of his children.<\/p>\n“After it ended<\/span><\/em>
\n the war was still on<\/span><\/em>
\n around our house<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nin the thin-lipped silences<\/span><\/em>
\n and grown-ups dressed in uniform colours,<\/span><\/em>
\n navy, khaki, brown.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nMy father had been there,<\/span><\/em>
\n didn\u2019t talk about it<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n…”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nTo read the full poem, click on:<\/p>\n
For a Song<\/em><\/a><\/h3>\nTwo aspects of these poems particularly interest me. The first is that although all are by poets who reside in New Zealand, our country’s history of\u00a0 inward migration is reflected in the fact that one poem commemorates a father born in England, although serving as a New Zealand soldier (NZEF Trooper 203453<\/em>); while Joanna Preston’s great-uncle was an Australian ANZAC, not a New Zealander.<\/p>\nThe second aspect is that all four poems are written by descendants of the serving soldiers, a great-niece, a son and two daughters, but not by the soldiers or nurses themselves. If we have a NZ Wilfrid Owen<\/a>, Siegfried Sassoon, or Anna Akhmatova<\/a>, his or her fame remains unsung.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yesterday was ANZAC Day and I posted on the — apparent — dearth of NZ novels that addressed the ANZAC heritage in terms of either WW1 or WW2. The case is not the same for poetry, however. A few years ago I featured a blog series on war poetry and quite a few of those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32088","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=32088"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32108,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32088\/revisions\/32108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
<\/a>Lissjenthoek – A haibun<\/strong><\/em>, by Joanna Preston<\/h3>\nJoanna’s poem commemorates is another account of the effects of war and loss within families, but the generational gap is wider, \u201cstained and smudged\u201d diaries the most direct connection \u2014 beyond bloodline and family heritage \u2014 to a lost great-uncle, “Row 21D. 4564 Corporal Stanley Coombes, 45th Battalion Australian Infantry, died 12th October 1917.” There. Red brick and white stone; an archway anything but triumphal. We wheeled our hired bicycles through the gate-building, blinking at the transition from light to shadow to light again as we stepped out into the garden. And garden it was. Rows of lilies, ranged in front of the crosses that marked the Canadian graves. The New Zealand graves. The South African graves …”<\/span><\/p>\n To read the full haibun, click on:<\/p>\n .<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHe was born at Longton Avenue<\/em><\/span> High tea on Sunday evenings<\/em><\/span> Gallipoli washed away all that \u2013<\/em><\/span> \u201cFor A Song\u201d<\/em> is one of a sequence of poems Barbara wrote for and\u00a0about her\u00a0 father and specifically addresses both aspects of his WW2 experience and also the aftermath of war, as seen through Barbara\u2019s eyes, as one of his children.<\/p>\n “After it ended<\/span><\/em> in the thin-lipped silences<\/span><\/em> My father had been there,<\/span><\/em> …”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n To read the full poem, click on:<\/p>\n Two aspects of these poems particularly interest me. The first is that although all are by poets who reside in New Zealand, our country’s history of\u00a0 inward migration is reflected in the fact that one poem commemorates a father born in England, although serving as a New Zealand soldier (NZEF Trooper 203453<\/em>); while Joanna Preston’s great-uncle was an Australian ANZAC, not a New Zealander.<\/p>\n The second aspect is that all four poems are written by descendants of the serving soldiers, a great-niece, a son and two daughters, but not by the soldiers or nurses themselves. If we have a NZ Wilfrid Owen<\/a>, Siegfried Sassoon, or Anna Akhmatova<\/a>, his or her fame remains unsung.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday was ANZAC Day and I posted on the — apparent — dearth of NZ novels that addressed the ANZAC heritage in terms of either WW1 or WW2. The case is not the same for poetry, however. A few years ago I featured a blog series on war poetry and quite a few of those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32088","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=32088"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32108,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32088\/revisions\/32108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n.<\/span><\/p>\nLijssenthoek<\/a><\/em><\/h3>\n
NZEF Trooper 203453 <\/em>by Leigh Vickridge
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/a>Another intergenerational poem, Leigh Vickridge\u2019s NZEF Trooper 203453, <\/em><\/strong>first featured here for ANZAC Day in 2011, records his father’s story:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n in London<\/em><\/span>
\n not far from Crystal Palace<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
\n with the mater and the pater<\/em><\/span>
\n then minor public school<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
\n carnage at Chunuk Bair<\/em><\/span>
\n flyblown corpses in the sun\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\nNZEF Trooper 203453<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/h3>\n
.<\/span>
\n<\/a>For A Song<\/em><\/strong> by Barbara Strang<\/h3>\n
\n the war was still on<\/span><\/em>
\n around our house<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n
\n and grown-ups dressed in uniform colours,<\/span><\/em>
\n navy, khaki, brown.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n
\n didn\u2019t talk about it<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nFor a Song<\/em><\/a><\/h3>\n