War Poems Story aired: Thursday, March 13, 2003
Homer, John Milton, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Shakespeare: all poets who wrote about war. Sometimes describing its horrors, sometimes finding reasons to call it glorious. Well, these immortals are not alone. A few weeks ago our roving poets Molly Saccardo and Jim Behrle came by with an invitation for listeners to send us their poems of war, and did they ever.
We received almost 200 in all. Here are the poems read on air:
Grease the Skids by John R. Cooke, Wilmington, NC
There's a term that old helicopter pilots use, Grease the skids, they say, when they wish to land safely and move on without delay.
Grease the skids: it means something like to ease, to assist, to advance, to expedite, to dispatch, not to agitate, nor aggravate, nor inebriate, but to facilitate
And so now I say to you, my darling, you have facilitated, for me, a smooth, soft, and safe landing. Thank you, sweetheart, for looking after our rations, our passions, our pets, and our kids, and, above all, for greasing my skids.
Another submission came from a 5th grader in Salem, Massachusetts. Teacher Leigh Fowler asked her students to write poems based on the style of John Marsden's "A Prayer for the Twenty-first Century." Click below to read more submissions from Jackson's Class.
A Fresh, Clean Slate by Jackson Sabbagh
May the ripples and waves flow freely May the birds soar as they do May the flowers blossom in the springtime And be mounted with droplets of dew
May our family show us what we need May our peers show us what we know May the true love beneath our hearts Forever, or once more, show
May the war be like no other End before it even begins May we make peace with others And agree that everyone wins
May we care for all black females May we respect all white men It's been nearly forever that we've been at it Let's stop and not start again
