Masters of War

[AKIron]

Originally posted by Toad
Iron, you left out the part the Byrds made famous!

(Ecclesiastes was one of my fav's back in the old, old days. Still is, I guess.)

I always like that one too. Here it is:

Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)
The Byrds

words adapted from the Book of Ecclesiastes by Pete Seeger
music by Pete Seeger

To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
And a time for every purpose under heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
And a time for every purpose under heaven

A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones
A time to gather stones together

To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
And a time for every purpose under heaven

A time of war, a time of peace
A time of love, a time of hate
A time you may embrace
A time to refrain from embracing

To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
And a time for every purpose under heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time to love, a time to hate
A time of peace, I swear it's not too late!

[Eagler]

Us and Them

Us and them
and after all we're only ordinary men
me and you
God only knows it's not what we would choose to do
forward he cried from the rear
and the front rank died
and the General sat, and the lines on the map
moved from side to side

Black and blue
and who knows which is which and who is who
up and down
and in the end it's only round and round and round
haven't you heard it's a battle of words
the poster bearer cried
listen, son, said the man with the gun
there's room for you inside

Down and out
it can't be helped but there's a lot of it about
with, without
and who'll deny it's what the fighting's all about
out of the way, it's a busy day
I've got things on my mind
for want of the price of tea and a slice
the old man died

[Pongo]

Listen children to a story that was written long ago
  'bout a kingdom on a mountain and the valley folk below.
On the mountain was a treasure buried deep beneath a stone,
  and the valley people swore they'd have it for their very own.

      Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend.
      Do it in the name of heaven, justify it in the end.
      There won't be any trumpets blowin' come the judgment day
        on the bloody morning after one tin soldier rides away.

So the people of the valley sent a message up the hill
  asking for the buried treasure, tons of gold for which they'd kill.
Came an answer from the kingdom: "With our brothers we will share
  all the secrets of our mountain, all the riches buried there."

      Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend.
      Do it in the name of heaven, justify it in the end.
      There won't be any trumpets blowin' come the judgment day
        on the bloody morning after one tin soldier rides away.

Now the valley cried with anger; mount your horses, draw your sword,
  and they killed the mountain people, so they won their just reward.
Now they stood beside the treasure on the mountain, dark and red,
  turned the stone and looked beneath it. "Peace on earth" was all it said.

      Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend.
      Do it in the name of heaven, justify it in the end.
      There won't be any trumpets blowin' come the judgment day
        on the bloody morning after one tin soldier rides away.

[ravells]

TO THE ANZACS

"Those heroes that shed their blood
and lost their lives;
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.
Therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnnies
and the Mehemets to us where they lie side by side
here in this country of ours.
You, the mothers,
who sent their sons from far away countries,
wipe away your tears;
your sons are now lying in our bosom
and are at peace.
After having lost their lives on this land they have
become our sons as well."

[Morpheus]

Originally posted by storch
There once was a man from nantucket

LOL!

[United]

Here's a well known one:

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place, and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae

[ravells]

That was my second choice!

well done!

Ravs

[streakeagle]

The Soldier

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

-Rupert Brooke

The Gunner's Dream

Floating down through the clouds
Memories come rushing up to meet me now.
In the space between the heavens
and in the corner of some foreigh field
I had a dream.
I had a dream.
Goodbye Max.
Goodbye Ma.
After the serng slowly to the car
And the silver in her hair shines in the cold november air
You hear the tolling bell
And touch the silk in your lapel
And as the tear drops rise to meet the comfort of the band
You take her frail hand
And hold on to the dream.

A place to stay
"Oi! A real one ..."
Enough to eat
Somewhere old heroes shuffle safely down the street
Where you can speak out loud
About your doubts and fears
And whats more no-one ever disappears
You never hear their standard issue kicking in your door.
You can relax on both sides of the tracks
And maniacs don't blow holes in bandsmen by remote control
And everyone has recourse to the law
And no-one kills the children anymore.
And no one kills the children anymore.

Night after night
Going round and round my brain
His dream is driving me insane.
In the corner of some foreign field
The gunner sleeps tonight.
What's done is done.
We cannot just write off his final scene.
Take heed of his dream.
Take heed.

-Pink Floyd

[-tronski-]

I Was Only 19 (A Walk in the Light Green) - lyrics by John Schuman

Mum and Dad and Denny saw the passing out parade at Puckapunyal, it was long march from cadets.
The Sixth Battalion was the next to tour and it was me who drew the card…
We did Canungra and Shoalwater before we left.

And Townsville lined the footpath as we marched down to the quay;
This clipping from the paper shows us young and strong and clean;
And there's me in my slouch hat, with my SLR and greens…
God help me, I was only nineteen.

From Vung Tau riding Chinooks to the dust at Nui Dat,
I'd been in and out of choppers now for months.
But we made our tents a home, VB and pin-ups on the lockers,
and an Asian orange sunset through the scrub.

And can you tell me, doctor, why I still can't get to sleep?
And night time's just a jungle dark and a barking M16?
And what's this rash that comes and goes, can you tell me what it means?
God help me, I was only nineteen.

A four week operation, when each step could mean your last one on two legs:
it was a war within yourself.
But you wouldn't let your mates down 'til they had you dusted off,
so you closed your eyes and thought about something else.

Then someone yelled out "Contact"', and the bloke behind me swore.
We hooked in there for hours, then a God almighty roar;
Frankie kicked a mine the day that mankind kicked the moon: -
God help me, he was going home in June.

I can still see Frankie, drinking tinnies in the Grand Hotel
on a thirty-six hour rec. leave in Vung Tau.
And I can still hear Frankie lying screaming in the jungle.
'Till the morphine came and killed the bloody row

And the Anzac legends didn't mention mud and blood and tears,
and stories that my father told me never seemed quite real
I caught some pieces in my back that I didn't even feel…
God help me, I was only nineteen.

And can you tell me, doctor, why I still can't get to sleep?
And why the Channel Seven chopper chills me to my feet?
And what's this rash that comes and goes, can you tell me what it means?
God help me,
I was only nineteen.


FOR THE FALLEN - Laurence Binyon

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children
England mourns for her dead across the sea,
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow,
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again,
They sit no more at familiar tables of home,
They have no lot in our labour of the daytime,
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires and hopes profound,
Felt as a wellspring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the night.

As the stars shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.
 
 Tronsky

[_Schadenfreude_]

Alan Seeger

Rendezvous

I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
When Spring comes back with rustling shade
And apple-blossoms fill the air--
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days and fair.

It may be he shall take my hand
And lead me into his dark land
And close my eyes and quench my breath--
It may be I shall pass him still.
I have a rendezvous with Death
On some scarred slope of battered hill,
When Spring comes round again this year
And the first meadow-flowers appear.

God knows 'twere better to be deep
Pillowed in silk and scented down,
Where love throbs out in blissful sleep,
Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,
Where hushed awakenings are dear . . .
But I've a rendezvous with Death
At midnight in some flaming town,
When Spring trips north again this year,
And I to my pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous.

[_Schadenfreude_]

An Irish Airman Foresees His Death

I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above:
Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love:
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan's poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.

[Curval]

I am just an aging drummer boy, and in the wars I used to play
And I've called the tune to many a torture session
Now they say I am a war criminal and I'm fading away
Father, please hear my confession

I have legalized robbery, called it belief
I have run with the money, I have hid like a thief
Re-written history with armies and my crooks
Invented memories, I did burn all the books

And I can still hear his laughter
And I can still hear his song
The man's too big
The man's too strong

Well I tried to be meek
I have tried to be mild
But I spat like a woman
And sulked like a child
I have lived behind walls
That have made me alone
Striven for peace
Which I have never known

And I can still hear his laughter
And I can still hear his song
The man's too big
The man's too strong

Well the sun rose on the courtyard
And they all did hear him say
"You always was a Judas
But I got you anyway
You may have got your silver
But I swear upon my life
Your sister gave me diamonds
And I gave 'em to your wife

And I can still hear his laughter
And I can still hear his song
The man's too big
The man's too strong

Dire Straits
The Man's Too Strong

Dedicated to Sadaam and his first appearance in court.

[Lazerus]

I don't want a pickle,
I just want to ride on my motorcycle.

[Sikboy]

My band broke up because the Drummer wanted to be all political and I just wanted to have a good time.

I just never have given a flying **** what some punk band thinks about the world lol.

I guess I just don't see rock and rollers as the poets of our time, and when I do think about that idea, I cry.  Now I'm depressed lol.

-Sik

[Naso]

Si sta,
come d'autunno,
sugli alberi le foglie.

We are,
like in autumn,
the leaves on the trees.

Giuseppe Ungaretti, during WWI