Dear Reader,
First of all thank you so much all those of you who wrote voting that my blog continues. I am very glad and will do my best to make the page interesting, funny sometimes, and hope that my poem touches the heart.
This week I have been reading more books about the first World War. Vera Brittain's very powerful autobiography, 'Testament of Youth'. This war is my special interest, perhaps because my father served in it. He was mentioned in dispatches three times for bravery and when he came home was never very well. He had been gassed. What Vera is saying in this long book is that her generation of young people, say between 18 years old and 25, lost their youthful exciting years because of the war. Instead of finishing her degree at Oxford university she became a nurse and performed her horrible duties with a heavy heart. Her fiance was killed at the front and she never really got over it. Hers was a 'bankrupt, shattered generation' and she hoped the successive generations would learn from the war's futility and horror.
I wonder if they have?
*
From Gilbert White, 1776, January 14th in Hampshire
'Rugged, Siberian weather, The narrow lanes are full of snow in some places .....The road-waggons are obliged to stop, and the stage-coaches are much embarassed. I was obliged to be much abroad on this day, and scarce ever saw its fellow.'
From James Woodeforde, 1790, January 14th in Norfolk
'The season so remarkably mild and warm that my brother gathered this morning in my garden some full blown primroses.'
*
Sometimes
I feel overwhelmed by
a spirit of joyfulness,
a desire to jump, to dance,
to laugh, to see the world
in a bright light,
sometimes I am optimistic
enjoy the warmth of the sun,
soft patter of rain on my face,
the wonders of this world.
Sometimes I believe
people are kind and good,
are innocent of evil,
deserve praise and
I honour them
and sometimes I don't.
*
With very best wishes, Patricia
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