Poetry Thursday - The Wound in Time by Carol Ann Duffy

THE WOUND IN TIME

It is the wound in Time. The century’s tides,

chanting their bitter psalms, cannot heal it.

Not the war to end all wars; death’s birthing place;

the earth nursing its ticking metal eggs, hatching

new carnage. But how could you know, brave

as belief as you boarded the boats, singing?

The end of God in the poisonous, shrapneled air.

Poetry gargling its own blood. We sense it was love

you gave your world for; the town squares silent,

awaiting their cenotaphs. What happened next?

War. And after that? War. And now? War. War.

History might as well be water, chastising this shore;

for we learn nothing from your endless sacrifice.

Your faces drowning in the pages of the sea.

Carol Ann Duffy, 2018.

(via; hear the poem read by Fiona Shaw here)

(via)

Pages of the Sea, on the 100th anniversary of the Armistice, was a very large coastal art project to commemorate WWI - gatherings of people around the UK that allowed a more informal commemoration of the people who gave their lives. See a three-minute video here, and Danny Boyle talks about the project here.