New Novel Writer
Footnote: Quite separately -
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My father’s step-brother finally met his death in The Somme in WW1 and is commemorated at Pozieres, in Picardy.
Private Roland Canning Hollis 6547 of the 8th Leicestershire Regiment, killed in action, March 22nd 1918.
I say “finally”, because he had been wounded, then sent back to the front, on three previous occasions.
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But I couldn’t let him die unsung, so I created a persona for him, and an album of songs, not war songs, launching him into the 21st century some 107 years later(!):
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Remembrance Day
A Lost Youth In Search Of Peace -
A Tribute offered by John Morey
The trumpets blare, the drums they beat,
A call to arms for weary feet.
From humble homes and muddy farms,
Youth marches on to unseen harm.
For kings and crowns, for flags and fame,
They learn to kill - no fear, no blame.
The gentry plot, the generals scheme,
Youth's bloody end to a peaceful dream.
The fields of green turn stained and red,
With shattered hopes and countless dead.
A brother falls, a friend is gone,
Youth rises again for one more dawn.
A mother waits, a father's tear,
A hollow ache, a constant fear.
The letters cease, the silence grows,
Youth's memories through the garden blows.
CLICK HERE to listen to "A Lost Youth"
And afterwards...
The scars remain, on heart and mind,
A bitter truth for all to find.
What was it for? The whispers start,
Youth's heavy stone upon the heart.
But time can heal, the seasons turn,
And lessons from the past... some learn.
The guns are silent, the fields are sown,
Youth's gentle peace is finally known.
A simple joy, a morning sun,
A quiet life when the war is done.
A loving touch, a child's soft hand,
Youth's greatest treasure in all the land.
So let the poppies bloom and sway,
A silent promise for a better day.
But for those who fought; those who died,
Youth finds some peace on the other side.