ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Flowers of Glory
(c) 2007 Manfred Vijars

I think this is brilliant Manfred. Love the concept of the soldiers as flowers.

Heather

I liked the concept Manfred but I kept stalling at the last line in every verse feeling like it needed more.

Still it made me think and thats what it is all about.


Well done Bob

Battalions of harvest plucked from each side

We tend to think of"Our boys"but everyone lost is a lover a brother or a son. Good one Manfred.

Dave.

I like this Manfred...the brevity of the lines picks up the beat of a drum that you hear often at military services IMO...I am not musical so don't know the correct terminology (is it a ruffle?) for it but that quick sharp ratta tat tat, ratta tat tat that they play on snare drums.

Beautiful words.

Cheers

Maureen

Thank you for your kind words. I had a picture of Battalions of uniformed Ghosts, battered and tattered. Soldiers from all nations in close order formation slow-marching past these cemetaries at sundown to a single side-drum stuccato. I can even see their individual faces shaking their heads in berwilderment.

The crux (and irony) of the piece is the third stanza, "Held in the bosoms of our former foes" ... "anger erased".

Manfred. I think that the mood and style of this piece is very appropriate for the tragic theme. Nothing more needs to be added to make the point.

It's a sad reflection, even the allusion to reconciliation doesn't seem to relieve the sadness.

From Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938) : Ottoman, Turkish army officer, revolutionary statesman, writer, and the first President of Turkey ...

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side now here in this country of ours... you, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land. They have become our sons as well.

----

That is a great statement Manfred, and a poem to equal it!

Thanks for your kind words Ross ...

Albany Western Australia Harbour entrance named after Kemal Ataturk.
In a reciprocal agreement in 1985 the channel leading into Princess Harbour (Albany WA) was officially named Ataturk Channel whilst the Turkish Govt. offically named the beach at Gallipoli where the Australian and New Zealand troops landed "Anzac Cove". In 2002 a statue of Mustafa Kamal Ataturk was erected overlooking the Channel.