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Have a Pity for War!

Have a pity for war,
When its friends are no more.
All its chums gone away,
With no one to slay,
Left silent and calm,
And no one to harm.
It’s a destitute life
In a world without strife!

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David Hollywood co-Directed The Bahrain Writer’s Circle and founded and ‘The Colours of Life’ poetry festival in Bahrain, The Gulf, and latterly worked in Antigua, The West Indies upon a variety of poetry in performance events. He is the author of an eclectic collection of poems titled ‘Waiting Spaces’ plus co-author of ‘My Beautiful Bahrain’, ‘Poetic Bahrain’, ‘More of My Beautiful Bahrain’, ‘Lonely’ and a variety of further publications. He is a literary critic for ‘Taj Mahal Review’ plus an essayist on the subject of poetry appreciation. He currently lives in his home country of Ireland.

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25 Responses

    • David Hollywood

      Thank you Jeremiah for such an association and I am uplifted if the style is somewhat reminiscent of a great artist.

      Reply
    • David Hollywood

      That’s satisfying to learn of your enjoyment of this Rohini. This is the opening stanza of what is 14 of equal length and which are designed to swing the pendulum in terms of mood and observation and consequently acknowledge more seriously what are the observable outcomes of how we behave in response to one another, and which might also appear at some stage. Many thanks for your comments.

      Reply
    • C.B. Anderson

      What would anyone do without war? Plant beans? Tend honeybees? Write poems not about war? Ride a motor-news-cycle?

      Reply
  4. Roy Eugene Peterson

    David, the military must prepare for war as long as humans are in charge, but the military is also among the last wanting war, because they have to fight it. As a Christian, I have an extreme distaste for anti-war writings. Don’t take that personally! I must refer you though to the “Bible: Matthew 24:6-8, King James Version:”
    6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

    7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

    8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

    There is more of course, and this is only one passage concerning the end times, which actually can last thousands of years as it has and continues. Reading the “Old Testament,” one can review the innumerable times God directed the Israelites to fight and destroy the enemy completely. Just ask Jericho!

    Reply
    • David Hollywood

      Dear Roy, Many thanks for your response and emphases. I am totally in agreement with you, and as mentioned above when responding to Rohini, this is just the opening stanza of what are 14 which between them visit the behavioral preparedness we put into war, and this particular one is the only lighter hearted of them all, while during the rest I focused upon what we prepare and then reap as a consequences of conflict, and all of it viewed from the eye sight, position and requirements of war, as if it were a person. I am not anti-war per.se, and while finding various arguments for and against certain conflicts will divide opinions, I am never the less of the opinion there are justifiable reasons for certain wars, for instance the Second World War was justified in my mind in order to defeat Nazism. Equally, throughout history we are all aware of wars continuity ad infinitum, and within that comprehension how much waste of lives there have consequently been, whether justifiable in certain minds or not, and therefore the volumes of tragedies that have stemmed from it all. This poem is only an expression of remorse when I witness, read about, see so many innocent deaths that spring from conflict, and as I say this is only a lighter opening for the rest of the poem, and of course and while wanting to express a sentiment I would also find it difficult to write a poem that might be in praise of war, and therefore I followed the more often witnessed script of writing either a cynical version (which I believe the rest of the poem portrays) or an obvious anti-war route which the above stanza has done. I hope that more clearly explains my position. Thank you again Roy for you response. All best.

      Reply
      • Roy Eugene Peterson

        Thank you, David, for that information and setting things straight on your approach to the subject. I wish you well on the rest of the writing about war. It seems we are in agreement.

  5. Joseph S. Salemi

    There will never be an end to wars, because human beings are always subject to pride, greed, arrogance, vengefulness, and ambition. It is more than ironic that the period in human history of “liberal-humanitarian” dominance and influence (1700 to today) has also been the period of the most horrendous and sanguinary wars.

    When we don’t prepare for and fight wars, we are obliged to surrender what we have to nations that ARE prepared and willing to fight. No pacifist has ever gotten around this brute fact.

    Reply
    • David Hollywood

      Dear Joseph, I hope my response above to Roy shows more clearly who I am in this regard, and which was evidently being prepared while yours was being published, because I am absolutely in agreement with you both.

      Reply
  6. Margaret Coats

    Clever words, David, with a rather odd fictional hope for grief and impoverishment imposed on war as an allegorical figure–just as real war grieves and impoverishes real human beings. If only it could be done without surrendering human health and happiness to mortal enemies!

    Reply
    • David Hollywood

      I am in complete agreement Margaret, and this is so much the tragedy. I wouldn’t usually do this, but as your comment picks up on what I have earlier tried to express I am including below two of the other stanzas which somewhat reflect what you say. Many thanks for your comments.

      If no one is left,
      Poor war’ll be bereft,
      So, let’s sanctify peace,
      Then we’ll breed and increase,
      And war’ll have no tears,
      As we offer our fears,
      To his yearning for years,
      Of our endless decease.

      Entombed within conscriptions snares
      are our ethics caught in moral scares,
      Of causes calls… as war insists,
      it’s time we stopped our liberal tryst.
      We in all conscience should enlist…..
      …..becoming warfare’s heroes missed!
      When bound by scruples we entrapped,
      our principles are then unwrapped.

      Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      Thanks, David, for showing more of the sequence. I am interested, and the second poem follows nicely on the first, but I don’t understand what the third is saying. It deals with how we think about war, I can see. Maybe you shouldn’t explicate, but simply use it to indicate you have a complicated topic to be examined in the work as a whole!

      Reply
      • David Hollywood

        Thank you, Margaret, for your response, and of course I made the mistake of applying a naiveite of presumption by assuming just because I thought I know what I mean when I included my additional stanzas that I therefore made sense, and I do apologise. What is published on the site is the first stanza, whereas I reflectively and regretfully, but with enthusiasm followed through with stanza’s 3 and 11 in my subsequent response to yourself. By including the latter especially, I have confused the associations of meaning, and which is a lesson. Please make allowances for my partiality, and thank you again.

  7. Joseph S. Salemi

    Mr. Hollywood, you title your piece an “anti-war poem,” but then you bend over backwards to agree with the criticisms of LTC Peterson and myself, asserting that you think warfare is necessary on occasion but nevertheless a source of grief and sorrow. When Margaret Coats raises similar objections, you then also are “in complete agreement” with her.

    What’s going on here? Do you have something coherent to say about warfare? Not even the most belligerent warmonger denies that war is horrendous and bloody and wasteful, so whom are you arguing against?

    The rhetorical problem here is that you are trying in some way to be ironical, by personifying “war” as someone who has no “friends” and “chums,” and therefore should be pitied. The additional lines that you have given to Margaret confirm this, and expressly celebrate it as a prelude to universal peace.

    But how the devil does this go along with your admission to war is sometimes necessary? When you express a specific viewpoint in a poem, it has to be buttressed by logic, and not just be an expression of your feelings.

    Reply
    • David Hollywood

      Dear Dr. Salemi, Yes, but don’t we write about so many things which contradict us in life, and while being overwhelmed in our choices, we are still subject to inconsistencies, and/or questions regarding what is correct or wrong, without being presumed to take a side? I am simply observing through this poem (much longer than appears on the site) a perspective that occurs without betraying either my own choices or views of conflict, because I chose irony on this occasion, rather than a pacifist position or that of an antagonist. There are several angles available as to how we may testify to violence, and in the first stanza of this one I chose what I hoped is seen as ironic satire, but gradually developed and wove (I hope reasonably) a developing evaluation from the perspective of war versus humankind, and in the format as if there were sides in the argument. However, it was determined the 13 other stanzas would not appear on the site, and presumably because it’s a complex issue, adjoined to what was a difficult enough poem of despair and irony. I therefore would hope my values do not appear to appease or oppose. all sides by being seen to be ‘bending over backwards’ but instead are acknowledged as a search to accommodate other outlooks when looking at the same thing. If anyone were to ask me, am I against war, then the answer is yes, but if I were asked am I completely anti-war then I say no? I believe the second World War was a just cause by the allies, but I do not support the position of the Russians in the current Ukrainian war, so therefore I have taken sides in both instances. Equally, many observers will have their own opinions, and consequently are open to a charge of moral elasticity being cast upon them, but this is not what I wished to achieve. I am simply regretful of the loss of lives, and through the poem I wrote hoped to highlight there are times and occasions when we don’t get it right. Many thanks for your response.

      Reply
      • C.B. Anderson

        You tried to do too many things, David; just write tight lines. And don’t try to solve the universe, but dig in your heels if you believe in what you are doing.

  8. Mike Bryant

    I think it’s great that SCP is open to many diverse viewpoints. That’s what free speech is all about. I love the idea of looking at war as if it were a person and this poem does that quite well. And, sure, when the walls of Jericho came tumbling down… could there ever be anything more just? I must say, though, today it seems that the USA is in one forever war. We don’t win them, we just move on to the next..
    But it’s a great way to spend trillions of dollars of our money… and when that kind of green is flowing around EVERYBODY can feather their nest.

    https://nationalinterest.org/feature/rand-paul-why-we-need-end-forever-wars-now-177997

    We just left Afghanistan and left billions in arms and equipment. No problem we’ll just make more, as long as the big guy gets his 10%.
    The majority of the American people need a breather from war. Especially the wars against patriots, our children, concerned parents at school board meetings, Catholics and all other Christians, men, women and those who think for themselves.
    So, yeah, I love the poem, and can understand why anyone would be war-weary at this point.

    Reply
    • David Hollywood

      Many thanks for your response Mike. Your inclusion of The National Interest feature drives home how wasteful and exhausting it is to have to continually contemplate war and its outcomes, but equally underlines the requirement and responsibility to question ‘what is it about, and why?’ and from that perspective determine how our own opinions are affected as to whether it is true and just, and from there decide what shall be our response, and all of which I know is not an easy matter to answer, at any time! Thanking you again. All best.

      Reply
  9. David Hollywood

    Thank you Mike for the article, and which singularly through the presentation of so many activities and numbers described, overwhelms our comprehensions as we try to embrace such figures.

    Reply

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