Where are the war poets? - Defence Academy of the United Kingdom

ANNEX - SELECTED POEMS
1. A poem about Poems About Vietnam (Jon Stallworthy)
The spotlights had you covered [thunder
in the wings]. In the combat zones
and in the Circle, darkness. Under
the muzzles of the microphones
you opened fire, and a phalanx
of loudspeakers shook the wall;
but all your bullets were blanks
when you were at the Albert Hall.
Lord George Byron cared for Greece,
Auden and Cornford cared for Spain,
confronted bullets and disease
to make their poems’ meaning plain;
but you – by what right did you wear
suffering like a service medal,
numbing the nerve that they laid bare,
when you were at the Albert Hall
The poets of another time –
Owen with a rifle-butt
Between his paper and the slime,
Donne quitting Her pillow to cut
a quill – knew that in love and war
dispatches from the front are all.
We believe them, they were there,
when you were at the Albert Hall.
Poet, they whisper in their sleep
louder from underground than all
the mikes that hung upon your lips
when you were at the Albert Hall.
2. In Times of Peace (John Agard)
That finger - index to be exact -
so used to a trigger's warmth
how will it begin to deal with skin
that threatens only to embrace
Those feet, so at home in heavy boots
and stepping over bodies -
how will they cope with a bubble bath
when foam is all there is for ambush
And what of hearts in times of peace
Will war-worn hearts grow sluggish
like Valentine roses wilting
without the adrenalin of a bullet's blood-rush
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