Boys of sixteen ,
knuckles cracking to join
Horse clippered skinheads
Excited clumps, dazed mums
Sergeants crack whips
Jumping hoops for tomorrow
Boarded ships, mess kits
Twenty miles to hell
Trenches stenches
Lice crackled flames
Quicksand muck
Silent sorrows buried
Forty million dead wounded
[44 words]
Note: They Shall Not Grow Old is a 2018 documentary film directed and produced by Peter Jackson. The film was created using original footage of World War I from the Imperial War Museum’s archives, most of it previously unseen, all over 100 years old by the time of release. Audio is from BBC and Imperial War Museum (IWM) interviews of British servicemen who fought in the conflict. Most of the footage has been colourised and transformed with modern production techniques, with the addition of sound effects and voice acting to be more evocative and feel closer to the soldiers’ actual experiences.
I watched half of this ~2-hour documentary last night and the rest today. Last Monday was Remembrance Day/Veterans Day, which was first created at the end of WWI on 11/11/18.
De Jackson (aka whimsygizmo) is today’s host of dVerse. De says:
Today, I want you to crack the whip on your muse. Crack a joke. Crack us up. A mirror cracked. A book cracked open. The crackling of a fire. A crack of lightning. A crack of light under the door. The crack of dawn. Get it? Crack open your pen and give us a poem of 44 words using some form of the word crack.
SO much vivid imagery and amazing word and sound play here, Jadeli. “Trenches stenches” alone is spectacular, as is every single line.
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Thank you, De. The primary focus of the show was what led up to and being in the trenches. Peter Jackson did it up right. There is a mini-movie also where he talks about how it came together. He also admits his focus was very narrow. Now that he has the clips and the interviews sorted, I think he needs to make more chapters on the others involved with the war (woman at home in the factories, all of the various ethnicities that fought in it, the nurses corps, etc.)
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To me the vividness of those trenches will reek through the centuries.
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Agreed, Bjorn.
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Such an ugly war but then they are all ugly. This one was particularly so. You did it full poetic and human justice.
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Toni thank you. If one person who watches the show is turned away from thinking war is a good idea it will have been worth the effort.
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WWI introduced poison gas, tanks, airplanes and machine guns. Our worst slaughter was during the Civil War, then seconded by WWI and WWII. Our recent wars have had less deaths because we can expedite medical help, but we have hundreds of thousands who were grievously wounded.
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Glenn, I think you would appreciate the show. They talk about so much from WWI, with the actual voices of the actual veterans who were interviewed 20 years or so ago. Jackson took old movies and matched up the scenes with what the soldiers were talking about. It’s an amazing piece of filmmaking!
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I thought you’d be featuring a Bob Dylan song here, but this is even more interesting! You really crack the whip on this one.
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Said, thank you.
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You’re welcome, Lisa 😊
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Powerful writing, Lisa. You took me there. This piece will def stick with me for a bit. Yikes!
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Susan, thank you. The film was very powerful and affecting.
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Such horror, such sorrow, such human stupidity! I haven’t watched that Lisa. I will look for it.
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It’s in theaters now, but my library already has a copy of it.
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Well done! a dynamite quadrille.
Happy Monday
Much✏love
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Thank you, Gillena.
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So evocative. Those faces say it all. (K)
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Thank you, Kerfe.
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A vivid piece. Well written.
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Thank you.
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This was a hard read but a great reminder of the horrors we have witnessed.
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Thank you, Grace.
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Oh, wow. This is powerful.
I will need to see this documentary (‘want’ isn’t quite the right word here, is it…)
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Thank you, Na’ama. It’s important to see, how’s that?
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Yep. Hence the word “need” …
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You’re really set the scene here — wonderful imagery (for a terrible time)!
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Thank you, Phillip. The scenes are from narration in the movie by the soldiers.
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A tragedy well told.
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Thank you, Sadje.
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A pleasure Li
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Great poem Jade… Those knuckle crackin’ boys have no idea what they are getting into!
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Thank you, Dwight. They made mention of that when they started getting into the thick of it.
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Your descriptiveness brings us there….where we need to be, to never forget. A hard reality to accept, this stupidity of war.
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Yes, Mish, we must never forget.
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Nice last line about the buried sorrow.
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Thank you, Frank.
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this gave me goosebumps. an ode. an elegy. or both. Too good, Ms. Jade.
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Thank you for reading and commenting.
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The image and quadrille are haunting. Jade, especially the lines:
‘Trenches stenches
Lice crackled flames’.
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Thanks Kim.
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Your words unmask the the real horrors of young men suffering, powerful words Lisa.
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Paul, thank you.
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A great read.
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Thanks!
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Old men make war, fostered by hunger for power and greed, and send young men (and now women) to suffer and die. Powerful write.
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Thank you and oh how I wish it wasn’t so. It seems to be that way since the beginning of known history…
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Sobering account of the folly of war with powerful visuals.
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Thanks Barry. Not an easy reality to accept for sure.
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