Very Sad, Very Powerful

D.A.Ns Little Book Of War Poetry by D.A. Nicholson is absolutely heart breaking and very powerful.

The poems cover the major conflicts since World War I but with a heavy loading set during the war to end all wars.

We hear about the mud, the terror, the gunfire. Under the masterful pen of D.A. Nicholson, the terrible images spring to life as we ‘see’ the desolation of war.

There are a few poems set in Iraq and Vietnam. We hear of the terrible cruelty of the Holocaust. We ‘see’ men being given white feathers and shot for cowardice. We hear of the total futility of war, the terrible loss of lives as men are used for cannon fodder.

All the poems are powerful. The one that really affected me was Bright, Shining Light about the atomic bomb being dropped from Enola Gay. It was accompanied by a drawing of what is now the peace museum. It really shows the futility of war:

“Men, women, and children, getting on with their lives, on this warm summer’s day,

The world changed forever when they dropped the atomic bomb from the Enola Gay.”