Tomorrow is Anzac Day. I wanted to honour all servicemen with this contest, so I have taken a poem written by a USAF Captain who was killed in action in Cambodia aged 24. Michael Davis O'Donnell was born one week after the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, and wrote this poem two months before he was killed in 1970. His body was identified in 1998 and he was finally laid to rest in a ceremony at Fort Meyer on 15 August 2001. He was a guitarist, singer and poet.
Please read the prompt poem, and write a poem using your response to his words.
Remember Them
If you are able,
save for them a place
inside of you
and save one backward glance
when you are leaving
for the places they can
no longer go.
Be not ashamed to say
you loved them,
though you may
or may not have always.
Take what they have left
and what they have taught you
with their dying
and keep it with your own.
And in that time
when men decide and feel safe
to call the war insane,
take one moment to embrace
those gentle heroes
you left behind.
This link will tell you more about this warrior-poet
http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/o/o021.htm
Write in any style or form you choose, rhyming or not, it's up to you.
Please read the prompt poem, and write a poem using your response to his words.
Remember Them
If you are able,
save for them a place
inside of you
and save one backward glance
when you are leaving
for the places they can
no longer go.
Be not ashamed to say
you loved them,
though you may
or may not have always.
Take what they have left
and what they have taught you
with their dying
and keep it with your own.
And in that time
when men decide and feel safe
to call the war insane,
take one moment to embrace
those gentle heroes
you left behind.
This link will tell you more about this warrior-poet
http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/o/o021.htm
Write in any style or form you choose, rhyming or not, it's up to you.
Contest is Over
- Contest was judged on May 10, 2008
- Rewards: Gold: 500, Silver: 300, Bronze: 100, Honorable mention: 3 people
- Final notes: Thank you all for your very fine entries. Judging this contest affected me very much. It brought home to me, yet again, how we keep learning the same harsh lesson, and young men die, and new wars begin, and it seems we lose the way. It was inspiring to me to read such heartfelt responses to the death, and return home, of only one of countless heroes.
Contest Winners
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Ommm… Crack-crack-crack-crack!• Commented on by judge. [remove]
- Error: Unable to find finalist item 1708524, it seems to have been deleted :( [remove]
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by AliceinPoetryLand 38 lines, 2 comments, on May 4 6:20 AM 2008. In Contest, Poetry Prompt, Thoughts
Honorable mention
• Commented on by judge. [remove] - Error: Unable to find finalist item 4132567, it seems to have been deleted :( [remove]
Gold trophy winner
Bronze trophy winner
Entries [6]
1 - 6 of 6
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Comments
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I truly hope you get a lot of enteries.
I believe you are doing a great thing and I hope that a lot of people will enter. -
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Please, write an entry - the contest means a lot to you, too...
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Wish with all my heart we could bring you home Micheal. I wish I could write for you. The tears just flow and I can not see the scearn.
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Congratulations to the winners and thank you for the HM
Thank you also for hosting.
Gaylene
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