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Eclipsing Karin’s Fracture

 

 

 

Eclipsing Karin’s Fracture

Fracture lines of frantic events. Pretty little German girl named Karin Ulbricht. Leipzig late 1989. Events so much bigger than just a mere pretty little lady. Daring to demonstrate for freedom. Do you know what you’re doing? Do you? Chasing a dream, not knowing what it is.

BUT YOU FEEL IT IN YOUR BONES.

And know that you’re right, being in Leipz...

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cold wardemonstrationsarrestsyoung peoplehistoryyoung lady

Lorraine

Lorraine

The bayonet. I've had it a decade. There's provenance here... not written I'm afraid. My mate Richard, who I went to school with in 82-87, had a lovely sister. Lorraine. from a different dad. He was a soldier in the British army. He's dead now. He collected weapons, guns and knives. His wife asked Richard what to do with them. Some were real guns. I said tell any cops the guns are fake...

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lorrine battledaughtersoldierbayonethistory

Forever Let This Place Here Be

Forever let this place here be
A warning to humanity,
A cry of despair, suffering;
Death in total, unrelenting.
Forever let its soil be bare,
For life shall grow not anywhere,
This place, a scar upon the face
Of mans wickedness, mans disgrace.

Forever let this place here stand
As evidence of evil planned,
A barren wasteland, void of hope,
Where many left in clouds of sm...

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AuschwitzDeathHistoryHolocaustHumanityPoemTreblinka

V For Victory

 

 
Some associate it with Churchill
Probably he of greatest fame
To have the national sign 
Associated with his name.
Some think it originated
From the Second World War
But in all likelihood
It came from long long before.
 
Legend will have it as 
A sign of the archery trade 
Our gift to the world,
British Empire made.
'Twas at the Ba...

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Humourhistory

BRICK WALL

BRICK WALL

 

 

This high brick wall borders East and West, a Cold War frontier that symbolises the divisions between two mindsets. A time of paranoia and of being taken away in the night, soldiers only following orders, you’re going to the East, not to be seen again as you’re an enemy of the state, Stassi style.

For those who resist and fight there is only one option, eliminate ...

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cold warberlin walleast v westgunslifedeathhistorygermany

CASTLES

CASTLES

 

On wet afternoons

We pay to visit

The English castles

Grim towers of stone

Ditches of defence

Arrow slits above

Fortified gateways

 

 

Charities now care

For their maintenance

Count the children’s coins

Provide guided tours

Sell home-made chutney

We wonder around

Tugging Welsh forelocks

Before these ruins

 

...

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WALESLiverpool Poetshistory

A Sea Poem

 

.
 
 
 
 
Deep within me  
lay a sea poem 
of long ago;
 
where air is fresh 
but blusters wildly
when southerlies blow, 
 
slick and slimy 
mud between the toes- 
mangrove's brackish home.
 
Whitecaps dance 
in the open channel 
close to where corals grow.
 
But further than the distance
of childhood ...

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Seaoceanmarinerecollectionreminiscereminiscenthistorychildhoodretrospection

In Cars

In cars, I'm him.
I make the shapes he makes –
one-handing the steering wheel
as if grasping some mane,
I cup the gear stick bulb
like it's a brandy bowl
and coast to junctions
clutch disengaged
scared as sharks to stop,
though on open road
I’ll box in better cars than mine,
a sudden stickler for the limit
I slap down and squeeze your knee
celebrating damming flow,
c...

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graham cliffordwww.grahamclifford.co.ukpoetrycontemporary poetrygenderhistorySwindon

Australia Day 2013

The Australian nation was birthed from the turmoil of the 1700s. Mad, King George III ruled the Empire and the tumultuous social upheavals of old Mother England and the American colonies had brought Australia into the picture. It was a saga of epic proportions, and throughout adversities and unique challenges a new people was formed, with a lifestyle and philosophy, ills and haunting issues pec...

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botany-bayhistoryCommemorationcolony

Giants of the Earth

Giants of the Earth, in ancient air,
Watch silently as earthly rumbles deep,
And as the world below drifts off to sleep,
A ghostly peak, refreshed beyond the glare.

Beauty in the vast, unparalleled,
Iridescent on one side of two,
Overcoat, to cast off; overdue,
Tremble underneath where others dwelled.

Tyrants roam, to crumble at their feet,
Crushed, reanimated in the wel...

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naturehistoryearthmountains

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