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| Chaplain to Talbot House club for First World War soldiers in Belgium |
‘San Fairy Ann’
Was what I
thought Grandad said
When I asked
what it was like
In the war,
In the
trenches on the Somme
It was years
before I realized
It was from
the French,
“Ça ne fait
rien”
It doesn’t
matter
But
There are
those that know
how
crowded like
cattle
in thirty-six
degrees heat
stifled in
wool
we snatched
sleep where we dropped
piled up on
rifles and bags
retreat from
the Teutonic tide
one German
soldier less
in full dress
bones stripped
bare
and we
crouched shaving in
our shell-hole
-
shaving mug’s
water
bloody -
mud of Front
Trench
then picked
for
a firing squad
to shoot men
in cold blood
like rats
whilst battling
on besides
a mate’s
broken body
and stinking feet rotting away
smiling
survival
while
brandishing brassy
souvenirs
‘San Fairy
Ann’
‘San Fairy
Ann’
3 comments:
Very compelling! I linked with this straight away, when I saw the title. My Grandad died young, but my Dad was a Polish soldier in WW2 and it took a lifetime to gain snippets of info about his personal war experience though I have read General Anders book.
Your poem is a fine exmple of how art can express the ugly and horrific, as well as the fine and beautiful. And we need that! I love the repeats at the end, and the way that links with the beginning. The misunderstood language gives it a gentle humorous lift in contrast to the serious content. Tackling a subject like this isn't easy, I know, because have had a go with some of my Dads memoirs. Thanks for writing this poem.
Such a beautiful, touching poem and a credit to Val who I shall never forget. My mother in law Betty, who died in 2017 was from East Yorkshire and had many colloquialisms, one being ‘It’s like Brigate in ‘ere’ and another ‘Sanfairy Ann’; I never knew what she was going to come out with next.
I don’t know of any of my family who fought in the Great War but Val captures in words, cameos of how it must have been. Jennie
This is brilliant! Fantastic imagery, really original -- very Wilfred Owenesque. I love this! This is your best poem, Val; it should be published. A very emotive, heartfelt work, disturbing and moving. You should have been a professional poet.
Alex
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