Beneath the War Memorial Shrine

        Beneath the War Memorial Shrine

        earth has been planted out with red salvias.

        Now like crimson candles

        they swarm beneath the edifice of bronze and stone

        and monstrous sword that plunges at the earth

        from angel hands above a soldier

        pulled from his death in mud and mire

        a soul into the 'everlasting arms'.

        With place names embossed around the inner vault

        in lists of glorious dead and studied shame

        Gallipoli, Ypres, Passchendaele, The Somme, Messines.     

Quiet in these mid-winter lunch hours clean and quiet.

        And outside beneath the War Memorial Shrine

        the carefully tended garden a square patch of ground

        planted out with red salvias

        a profusion of terrible beauty

        bleeding with an unstaunched fury

         smoking into the dark cold sky of afternoon.

 These poems are from my new collection IN THE APRICOT DARKNESS (view the cover and contents below in my recent posts). They are now being published individually, daily under 'recent posts' on my blog and will be available shortly as an eBook that can be read online or downloaded for free.