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    AC Benus
  • AC Benus
  • Author
  • 08/23/2021
  • 122 Words
  • 1,439 Views
  • 6 Comments
Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

The Great Mirror of Same-Sex Love - Poetry - 3. ...for George “Peter” Johnstone...

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for George “Peter” Johnstone

 

1915

 

I’ve watched the Seasons passing slow, so slow,
In the fields between La Bassée and Bethune;
Primroses and the first warm day of Spring,
Red poppy floods of June,
August, and yellowing Autumn, so
To Winter nights knee-deep in mud or snow,
And you’ve been everything.

Dear, you’ve been everything that I most lack
In these soul-deadening trenches—pictures, books,
Music, the quiet of an English wood,
Beautiful comrade-looks,
The narrow, bouldered mountain-track,
The broad, full-bosomed ocean, green and black,
And Peace, and all that’s good.

—Robert Graves,[i]

1915

 

 

 

 

 

[i] “for George ‘Peter’ Johnstone” Robert Graves Fairies and Fusiliers (New York 1918), p. 91. https://archive.org/details/fairiesfusiliers00grav/page/90/mode/2up

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Thanks go to the tireless Lucy London, who researches and publishes on First World War poets, for introducing me to this poem and telling me for whom it was written ❤️
as noted
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Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
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AC Benus
10 hours ago, D.K. Daniels said:

Such a current poem with what's happening in the world. The ache for good times and peace are all we wish for... thanks again for the poem :)

Thanks for reading and commenting! You know, with all the Gay poetry by Gay poets I've read in preparation for the Mirror, I still find something remarkably unique in Robert Grave's poetry. Better-remembered today for his print versions of the Greek Myths (which I read in HS), his poetry is among the strongest, clearest, dare I say -- best -- from his era. 

I guess what I'm thinking is, a person can never go wrong picking up a Grave's poem :)  

Edited by AC Benus
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D.K. Daniels
14 hours ago, AC Benus said:

Thanks for reading and commenting! You know, with all the Gay poetry by Gay poets I've read in preparation for the Mirror, I still find something remarkably unique in Robert Grave's poetry. Better-remembered today for his print versions of the Greek Myths (which I read in HS), his poetry is among the strongest, clearest, dare I say -- best -- from his era. 

I guess what I'm thinking is, a person can never go wrong picking up a Grave's poem :)  

If his body of work is as striking as that poem, I'll have to look into more of his backlist. Can't I've heard of him before thought, we never did a lot of poetry in school.

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AC Benus
On 1/23/2023 at 11:20 PM, D.K. Daniels said:

If his body of work is as striking as that poem, I'll have to look into more of his backlist. Can't I've heard of him before thought, we never did a lot of poetry in school.

Thanks, @D.K. Daniels. Sorry for the long delay in replying. If you've encountered Graves' work before, it's likely to have been in his book The Greek Myths. This was required reading in high school for generations (and I hope still today) 

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