A Different Christmas Poem

[Goretawn]

Some of you may have seen it before. I am not sure who wrote it, but it speaks volumes.

A Different Christmas Poem

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."

"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

[HarmNone]

Yes, I've seen it before, Goretown; however, that does not take away from its power. Thanks for posting it. :)

[Gan]

Powerful indeed.

Thx Goretown.

[TheEschaton]

I've got another one:

Dulce Et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

8 October 1917 - March, 1918

That's what being a soldier is really about. I hate this crap which somehow makes it so sweet and honorable to be a soldier.

-TheE-

[Gan]

I've got another one:

Dulce Et Decorum Est

...

That's what being a soldier is really about. I hate this crap which somehow makes it so sweet and honorable to be a soldier.

-TheE-

What a lovely Christmas poem.

And how would you know what being a soldier is really about again?

[Goretawn]

And because of the honor and glory of said Soldiers, you have the right to say such.

It is true that not everything about being a Soldier is glorious. Seeing your friend with a 4" hole in his head is never an easy thing, but to discard him as less then honorable because he decided to defend his nation and a people he does not know is rediculous.

I find very few professions more honorable then the Armed services. Of those that rate with then is being a Fireman/woman, Policeman/woman and even the PC. To do something you feel is for the greater good is very honorable.

Thanks for showing your true colors here. Remember to thank a Soldier next time you see one for the fact you can say such things in public.

[xtc]

I think THe E expressed himself poorly. I don't think anyone would argue that being a soldier can be a noble and honourable profession even if soldiers don't always act that way.

Perhaps what he meant to say was that being a soldier has been glorified in society, in the way that it has been divorced from reality, ignoring the gritty reality and hard ship that can be a soldier's life. That it can be a life of war, death, and destruction. Even in cases where the cause is noble and especially when the cause isn't noble.

[Latrinsorm]

The Latin phrase means (loosely) "how sweet and noble it is to die for one's country!", and the poem points out that, far from being sweet, it's really shitty. Don't confuse denying the honor of a profession with denying the honor of a pointless, horrible death.

[Some Rogue]

I hate this crap which somehow makes it so sweet and honorable to be a soldier.

-TheE-


The Latin phrase means (loosely) "how sweet and noble it is to die for one's country!", and the poem points out that, far from being sweet, it's really shitty. Don't confuse denying the honor of a profession with denying the honor of a pointless, horrible death.


Perhaps that's what he should have said. It doesn't read that way to me though.

[Goretawn]

The Latin phrase means (loosely) "how sweet and noble it is to die for one's country!", and the poem points out that, far from being sweet, it's really shitty. Don't confuse denying the honor of a profession with denying the honor of a pointless, horrible death.

I think I see where you are coming from. As with many combat related deaths, it cam be a very painful and horrible death. Deaths are never glorious, but sometimes it is necessary to give ones life to protect the safety and security of our nation and those nations we protect.

As for pointless, even with your poem, I would disagree. Considering that soldier was killed in a war to deny the German attempt to conquer all of Europe, although horrible, was not entirely pointless.

Oh, and TheE, I do enjoy our discussions. I like to hear from, I guess we can call it, the other side of the spectrum. I do listen to your point of view and try to understand it from such. At times it may appear to fall on deaf ears, it truely does not.

[Latrinsorm]

sometimes it is necessary to give ones life to protect the safety and security of our nation and those nations we protect.
This is precisely what makes people like Eschaton and I so angry, that we as a species have to (HAVE TO) resort to violence or be overrun by the Hitlers and the Genghises. Not that there are no beneficial consequences from a soldier dying, but that there shouldn't be soldiers in the first place. We should have just grown up as a species a long time ago, but we haven't. Pointless isn't exactly the right word, but I can't think of the right one.

[Kyra]

I for one enjoyed the poem, thank you for posting it. Now if we could just get people to discontinue publicly downgrading all soldiers for the acts of a few, very sad.

[Goretawn]

This is precisely what makes people like Eschaton and I so angry, that we as a species have to (HAVE TO) resort to violence or be overrun by the Hitlers and the Genghises. Not that there are no beneficial consequences from a soldier dying, but that there shouldn't be soldiers in the first place. We should have just grown up as a species a long time ago, but we haven't. Pointless isn't exactly the right word, but I can't think of the right one.

It would be a glorious world indeed if it was not necessary to have a standing military. For there to be no reason for armed conflict. That we could all live in peace and harmony.

Unfortunately, this eutopia does not exist, nor do I think it will in our lifetime or our children's lifetime. Let's hope I am wrong though.

[Back]

This is precisely what makes people like Eschaton and I so angry, that we as a species have to (HAVE TO) resort to violence or be overrun by the Hitlers and the Genghises. Not that there are no beneficial consequences from a soldier dying, but that there shouldn't be soldiers in the first place. We should have just grown up as a species a long time ago, but we haven't. Pointless isn't exactly the right word, but I can't think of the right one.

Unfortunate may be the word for it.

No doubt that there are war heros, and there have been wars for noble causes, but all of that does not necessarily extend to just any enlisted man at any time. Americans have not had to fight for freedoms since the Revolutionary war. This is not a knock on anyone, just a statement.

Also, ultimately we would not have the cliche “war is hell” without a reason.

[TheEschaton]

Just because soldiers might be doing it for the honorable reason of "defending our country" (which I, personally, rarely is the reason for any war - exceptions being the world wars), I (and I think Latrin) would say that the idea that this automatically makes the things soldiers do or have done to them honorable and great. The means do not justify the ends.

I would argue killing (or being killed) is never right. In special, certain circumstances, maybe it's not wrong, but it is never right.

And I find I am disturbed yet somewhat gratified to have support on this issue, even if it's from Latrin.

-TheE-

[Some Rogue]

Welcome to Fantasy Island!
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