For my Family of Friends and all of our Veterans of all Wars on this Veterans Day. I wrote this during the Persian Gulf War but the sentiment and message of my poem is timeless.
Regarding Victories or Great Losses on the Bloodied Battlefields Worldwide ~ it is a Truth in the Heart of every Soldier that NOBODY really Wins in War.
“RAVAGES UNSEEN”
The losses which are most extreme
are those within that brace the dream
That in the darkness of war’s plight
strike dim our sanctuary of light
Where ravages endured unseen
struggle to reach for some esteem.
It is the weary soldier’s lot
our sin of strife to bear
His/her courage may not be forgot
lest we drink deep of their despair.
So welcome from the battlefields
of yesterday’s remorse
We gratefully extend our hearts
and bid your souls upon their course.
For any warmth we may exude
come to us as a friend
Together we may conquer all
that wars bring to no end.
Claudio Oswald Niedworok
Commissioned by Mayor Charles Wood of Lizard Lick, N.C. for whom I have been appointed as their official lifetime Poet Laureate…and that was many, many moons ago.
Dedicated to the more than one hundred million humans who perished in wars of the twentieth century. Though dead yet they speak.