Poetry: Anthony Wade

Anthony Wade

A Mother’s Grief 

Surprise, even hostility, followed my admission

of having also sought out and visited

a cemetery for the German dead during a

former tour of allied war graves in Normandy,

as though the German dead were not also

the sons of mothers, but given they were, that

their deaths should not be so respected,

their mothers’ grief be less deserving of sympathy.

Yet is the grief of a Russian mother any less human

than that of a Ukrainian mother lost their sons, and

can there be any children over whose graves

we should not stand, our tears not fall?

***

The Strength Of Small Actions

Among the big images of the war in Ukraine

are vignettes of people doing what they must,

like helping an elderly woman with shopping

through yet more rubble from another explosion,

small moments of unnoticed courage,

known perhaps only to the family,

as when with every far window gone

and her front door hanging by a screw

Grandma brushed her hair, stepped out and

polished the brass knocker and letter box,

as she had done every day of the years of exile,

the morning after an indiscriminate flying bomb

had rubbled four neighbouring houses in the night,

for more could not be done but something

had to be done, and now again many

are aware that life in its many guises

has somehow to be survived,

that small actions take courage,

grow bigger, bring strength,

even, perhaps especially,

when the many are dying.

*** 

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Bio: Anthony Wade, a Forward Prize nominee, has published in poetry magazines in Ireland, Britain, India and the US (including Setu Bilingual), in print and online. Irish, he lives by the sea in East Cork and is an active member of the local Writers’ Group. twitter.com@anthonywadepoet: Anthony Wade, a Forward Prize nominee, has published in poetry magazines in Ireland, Britain, India and the US (including Setu Bilingual), in print and online. Irish, he lives by the sea in East Cork and is an active member of the local Writers’ Group. twitter.com@anthonywadepoet

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Setu, May 2023