Month: July 2016

I Didn’t Get it Henry and Wish I Didn’t Get It Now

The plunge of civilization into this abyss of blood and darkness… is a thing that so gives away the whole long age during which we have supposed the world to be, with whatever abatement, gradually bettering, that to have to take it all now for what the treacherous years were all the while really making for and meaning is too tragic for any words.

– Henry James – 1914 – on the day England entered WWI

The world always gets turned upside down

I see that and know it

It’s the way everything works

Always has worked

It’s a cycle

I studied history

The facts are clear

Cause and effect

Random occurrences

A trampoline of ups and downs

Forever

Intellectually Henry I knew it

I thought you wrote real pretty

But then I moved on

A footnote, an addendum, something that happened

To someone else

but I didn’t get it Henry

and

Wish I didn’t get it now.

Gene G. McLaughlin 2016

The Subtext

I wish I could show you what

I see

But

It lacks impact

Without context

But

As a hint

Love and light

Are the subtext

Gene G. McLaughlin 2016

July 1st, 1916 – One Hundred Years Ago Today

One hundred years ago today near the Somme river in France it was 52 degrees and clear in the morning.  British historians call this day the First Day of the Somme or the Battle of Albert which lasted until July 13th.  It was part of a greater battle they refer to as the Battle of the Somme.  The British Fourth Army was one of the participants on the first day of fighting and when night came they had taken 57,470 casualties, 19,240 of which were men killed in action.  It was near 80 degrees when a truce was called to remove the dead from the battlefield.  It was no longer clear, smoke filled the air.  The Battle of the Somme would last until November 1st, 1916.  British losses alone were 481,842.  The are are other periods of bloodshed that compare. Verdun. Stalingrad. Dnieper.  Today does not mark their passing though.  When analyzing the battle of the Somme for a victor military historians consider the results inconclusive.  The 1.2 million causalities over 4 months was not enough to settle the argument.  More would be needed.

Gene G. McLaughlin 2016