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Never Forget This Man

British Hero I’ll Never Forget
Rex North, A British Hero I’ll Never Forget,
War Correspondent, Daily Mail Friday, June 9. 1944
From Aboard Her Majesty's Ship Belfast

This is a story about of the magnificent spirit
and endurance of our men in France.

We were off the French coast, blasting enemy tanks
and silencing the heavy guns, when a tiny boat drew

alongside. ‘Will you take an injured man on board?’
We lowered a draw from a large cupboard on the end

of a crane. The sea was white-tipped, angry and rough.
The boat sank into the trough between the waves,

while the man was bleeding profusely. later he lay
on deck a cigarette between his lips, his eyes open,

watching, but still smiling. ‘Bad luck old man,’ I said.
He returned a tight smile. That night his legs

were amputated. Sadly, he died. Please remember
this man's tremendous courage, patience and will.

The ordinary people of this country, like him,
have written history in crimson-shed blood.


******

version 2 Thurs. 6th June 2019

Pretty well done exercise.... the ending needs to be stronger, the history written in blood too common.... just curious, why are you doing this type of exercise? You have a good, imaginative voice which interests me more

hi bob, the daily mail is printing copies of it's new of D-day landings of 75 years ago.
every day they print 4 pages of news from the invasion front. my three fold reasons
1. to commemorate the landings of the allied armies, usa, uk and Canada
2. to give American readers a taste of how the brits handled reporting of the war
3. to give me practice of found and erasure type poems

please excuse lack of caps.

We can't praise that generation enough...they saved Europe. Out of curiosity, who publishes found / erasure poems? Personally, I don't get the attraction, but I have never been a big fan of collage either. Or Slam Poetry for that matter. But that's me. And it isn't a criticism of you or anyone else who writes "found" poetry. It's your right....Since it has become rather big at W, I am just curious about why it's popular.

i agree bob, i don't like most of the collage stuff
the way i do it is to leave the original text in feint
i can't do that here, the system does not allow.
and it is very limiting, but for historical work
it seems to work for me. i am only recently getting to grips with it
and it is allowable to add key words and change for grammar
to meet the need. it really is about enhancing prose
so the work approaches the poetic set. to me it should
bring historical writing to the fore where an author has
inadvertently written prose that approaches the beauty of poetic.

i think it truly works in historical reports where the author is dead,
not necessarily dead, so that his work is glorified in a new form
so as to elevate his work. hope that all makes sense.

Thanks, Frank...I like how you have thought this out

you're welcome bob