this is indeed a great war

so all we hear today is cannons’ boom

their echo forms our terrible surround

for this whole century the world’s a tomb

it isn’t that we just ran out of room

for good intentions our shots will redound

so all we hear today is cannons’ boom

from shore to shore and the explosives’ bloom

accompanied by their pervading sound

for this whole century the world’s a tomb

though skies are sunny we are cast in gloom

parents and children thrown into the mound

so all we hear today is cannons’ boom

perhaps in time some scholar will exhume

the reason why we all now lie in ground

for this whole century the world’s a tomb

 and every hope has fallen down to doom

while goodness trust and honesty are bound

so all we hear today is cannons’ boom

for this whole century the world’s a tomb

merely the facts

those who have measured the true depths of hate

are never guided by the maps we know

nor by the compass or the starry show

at height of darkness that is not their fate

on the long journey for they won’t debate

the terrors or the pains there is no blow

so hard it will detain them the great flow

of history inspires them not to wait

there’s a reminder that we learn the ways

when we are children and the early signs

of wisdom we dismiss as so much guff

yet we return when we’ve fulfilled the days

of hardest learning and worked in the mines

discovering at last we’re not so tough