Clement Wood: Seedtime and harvest

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

American writers on peace and against war

Clement Wood: Victory – Without Peace

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Clement Wood
Seedtime

Not too deep we plant the grain,
So that it can rise again
To re-green the naked field,
Minting all its golden yield.

But these slaughtered men should sleep
Planted deep, planted deep.
They have had their share of pain,
And they would not rise again.

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Harvest

Out of the blood-washed trenches,
Leaving their bodies there,
The souls of the dead young soldiers
Float up the friendless air.

They do not seek the masters
Who herded them to this fate.
With hearts all hot for vengeance, –
They are too dead to hate.

But each one finds the maiden
He trembled for in life –
She who was yet his sweetheart.
She who was his young wife.

And she feels on her hungry bosom
The ghost of a dead caress.
As the soul of her lover scatters
Into gray nothingness.