More songs by the fighting men. Soldiers poets: second series/Collin Brooks

COLLIN BROOKS

Sergeant, Machine Gun Corps

 

To Another Poor Poet

SHALL God forget these darkling years we spend
In poverty and misery and toil
Unlit save by a glint of faëry spoil
That gleams and leads us, steadfast, to His end,
The darkling years when only Hope is friend
To Courage who, from where our foes embroil,
Still calls us onward—onward tho' the soil
Engulf both us and all that we defend?

The spoken word holds true: the swords we wield
Upended show the Cross that, potent yet,
Shall prove each wound we suffer on the field
No sacrifice made vainly to abet
A senseless purpose. Wait but for the yield
Of all our toil and—God shall not forget.