Marty's Poetry - 3. Oblivion

Powerful - brings back my own fears as a child 

Grim. Alarming. Trenchant. 

I was not born until 1967, and so missed the worst of that period. I cannot say I'm sorry. I saw a little film once called 'Duck and Cover', and it made me sad to think it was shown to school children. There are better things out there to teach.

On 1/27/2019 at 12:37 PM, Mikiesboy said:

It's a good poem. The final two stanzas show the innocence and the naivete of the writer, but in some ways that makes it all the more powerful.  Thanks for sharing your early work.

And thank you, Tim. Both for reading it and for commenting.

On 1/27/2019 at 1:15 PM, Parker Owens said:

People who think this is ancient history ought to read this poem. It is just as real today as it was then. 

Thanks for taking the time to comment, Parker. 

I'm not sure whether the threat of all out nuclear war is as real now as it was when I wrote the poem, but I am still worried that the world may be slipping closer to a third world war.

But I think the biggest concern these days is whether governments have the will to tackle global warming... 😟

On 1/27/2019 at 4:39 PM, AC Benus said:

Powerful - brings back my own fears as a child 

Thanks for your kind comment, AC. 

On 1/27/2019 at 11:01 PM, Geron Kees said:

Grim. Alarming. Trenchant. 

 

I was not born until 1967, and so missed the worst of that period. I cannot say I'm sorry. I saw a little film once called 'Duck and Cover', and it made me sad to think it was shown to school children. There are better things out there to teach.

 

Thanks for the comments, Geron! 

I've never even heard of 'Duck and Cover' - but back in 1965 the BBC produced a television drama called The War Game, a documentary style drama depicting the prelude and after-effects of a Soviet nuclear attack on Britain. Under pressure from the UK Government, the BBC scrapped its planned 7th October broadcast, giving the reason that it was "too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting" - even though it was publicly screened abroad (where it won several awards). The BBC did finally show it on 31 July 1985, as part of a series of programmes remembering the 40th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.

Around 1980 I was a member of the "Eco" Party (a precursor to the Green Party) in Manchester. One of our members had managed to get hold of a copy of The War Game on cine-film, and one evening we gave a free public showing of it in a Church Hall on Deansgate in the centre of Manchester. The organisation of that showing was a bit chaotic, to say the least. We had no projector, so I borrowed the one that belonged to the school I was teaching in at the time. When I say 'borrowed' what I really mean is that I simply took it without asking, as I knew that the headmaster would not have given me permission had I asked.

Around one hundred people turned up on the night, and afterwards we opened the floor to members of the audience. One of my most vivid memories of the night is a Japanese guy who stood up and told us that he was a survivor of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima, and went on to describe his memories of that awful event...

On 1/27/2019 at 11:24 PM, drpaladin said:

I remember those years well. We had a bomb shelter Thank God we never had to use it. Thank you for sharing these feelings from the not so far past.

Thank God, indeed, drpaladin. And many thanks for your comment. 

In 1980 the British Government issued a leaflet entitled Protect And Survive, which was supposedly advice to the public as to what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. Much of its advice was laughable really. So, in an attempt to bring home just how absurd it was, myself and several other members of the Eco Party (a precursor to the Green Party) spent one Saturday afternoon in the then Manchester Peace Garden in St. Peter's Square, sheltering under a kitchen table (that being one of the pieces of advice in the Government leaflet) in an attempt to show the public just how stupid it was for Mrs Thatcher's government to assume that they could protect or placate us with such nonsense. 

Thanks for the link, @drpaladin and yes, as @Geron Kees said, it's sad to think that 'educational' films like that should have been thought necessary to show to schoolchildren... 

I cannot find a YouTube link to the full BBC's TV drama The War Game, but a copy is available at the Internet Archive here.

17 hours ago, Marty said:

 

Thanks for the comments, Geron! 

 

I've never even heard of 'Duck and Cover' - but back in 1965 the BBC produced a television drama called The War Game, a documentary style drama depicting the prelude and after-effects of a Soviet nuclear attack on Britain. Under pressure from the UK Government, the BBC scrapped its planned 7th October broadcast, giving the reason that it was "too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting" - even though it was publicly screened abroad (where it won several awards). The BBC did finally show it on 31 July 1985, as part of a series of programmes remembering the 40th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.

 

Around 1980 I was a member of the "Eco" Party (a precursor to the Green Party) in Manchester. One of our members had managed to get hold of a copy of The War Game on cine-film, and one evening we gave a free public showing of it in a Church Hall on Deansgate in the centre of Manchester. The organisation of that showing was a bit chaotic, to say the least. We had no projector, so I borrowed the one that belonged to the school I was teaching in at the time. When I say 'borrowed' what I really mean is that I simply took it without asking, as I knew that the headmaster would not have given me permission had I asked.

 

Around one hundred people turned up on the night, and afterwards we opened the floor to members of the audience. One of my most vivid memories of the night is a Japanese guy who stood up and told us that he was a survivor of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima, and went on to describe his memories of that awful event...

I have seen The War Game, and have a copy in my video collection. I remember the opening sequence, where military bases and cities in Britain are displayed on a map, and the narrator declares that the Russians have allocated this number of thermonuclear bombs to each one. It's kind of frightening to see dots on a map as targets, and consider that each dot represents thousands or even millions of people. That we once considered doing this to each other is frightening.

That we still can do this to each other, but that the idea has receded from the public mind, is perhaps even more frightening. The danger is just as real, whether we worry about it daily or not.

We are no smarter now than we were in 1955. We've just convinced ourselves that the danger has passed.

There is nothing that can be added that hasn't already been said, it's well written with a powerful message that is just as relevant today as it was when it was first written. Thank you.

On 9/10/2019 at 11:28 AM, Mancunian said:

There is nothing that can be added that hasn't already been said, it's well written with a powerful message that is just as relevant today as it was when it was first written. Thank you.

And thank you for your welcome comment!  

9 hours ago, Valkyrie said:

This brought back memories of air raid drills when I was in elementary school.  I remember watching films about Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the horror I felt learning that history.  The poem is, unfortunately, still relevant today, and I fear will always be so.  Thank you for sharing.  

Thanks for reading and commenting, @Valkyrie.

You're right. It sadly is still relevant today. Especially as today marks the 75th anniversary of the bomb being dropped on Hiroshima.  

I didn't realise that you wrote poetry Marty and good poetry at that. This piece from your twenties is strikingly pertinent to our current world situation. 

The threat seems even greater nowadays, as the despots that share this MADness, toy with annihilation, convinced it's a battle they can win.

Thank you for sharing. 

On 8/7/2020 at 6:29 AM, Bard Simpson said:

I didn't realise that you wrote poetry Marty and good poetry at that. This piece from your twenties is strikingly pertinent to our current world situation. 

The threat seems even greater nowadays, as the despots that share this MADness, toy with annihilation, convinced it's a battle they can win.

Thank you for sharing. 

Thanks for the kind words, @Bard Simpson, and my apologies for not saying so earlier. I don't know how I managed not to see your comment when you first posted it...  

I'm a fair bit older than you, so I'm not sure the threat seems greater nowadays than it did when I wrote it in 1965 (I wasn't in my twenties, by the way, but still a teenager).

I'll admit that the world certainly still seems to be under as much threat now as it did then. But to my mind the current threat is climate change, and the apparent unwillingness, despite all the evidence, of the majority of individuals and countries to take any effective action to tackle it.

Chilling. It brings back those fears for me.  

I love this poem for it's timing and rhyming good job Marty for a Poem filled with terror!