Tonight I watched a documentary on tv about soldiers who died in both World Wars and whose remains were found over the years. A man read a poem that I liked very much, but - and I can beat myself for this - I can only remember the last few words! The poem is told from the point of view of a dead soldier, who is lying in a trench, notices a second war being fought above his head and getting company of other killed soldiers along the way. All those soldiers are found by their families, but he remains there, all alone, waiting for his relatives to come get him. In the end they do.
The last words of the poem are "then my family came". It´s not much, but I hoped that maybe somebody would be able to give me the name of the poem?

Hi Leau, I have been through all my anthologies, but no luck.
You might write to the radio programme producers.
Or try the War Poets section in your library. I think there is a treasury of War Poems or two. Not much help , I know but I AM still looking.

I've done some searching as well and haven't come up with anything. When you do find it, though, would you be sure to post it here? I'd really like to read it - it sounds like a very good one.

Thanks for your help guys. I've been e-mailing the broadcasting company that broadcasted the documentary several times and today I got an answer! They sent me the original poem and the Dutch translation. How nice!

So here's the poem. It was written by Mike Edwards, a reporter for the local British newspaper The Horncastle News, after visiting some WWI battlefields.


I half awoke to a strange new calm
In a sleep that would not clear
For this was the sleep to cure all harm
And which frees us from all fear

Shot had come from left to right
With shrapnel shell and flame
And turned my sunlit days to night
Where now none would call my name.

Years passed me by as I waited
Missed the generations yet to come
Sadly knew I would not be fated
To be a Father, hold a son.

I heard again the sounds of war
When twenty years of sleep had gone
For five long years, maybe more
Till peace once more, at last had come.

More years passed, new voices came
The stones and trenches to explore
But no one ever called my name
So I wished and waited evermore.

Each time I thought perhaps, perhaps
Perhaps this time they must call me
But they only called for other chaps
None ever called to set me free.

Through years of lonely vigil kept
To look for me, they never came
None ever searched or ever wept
No body stayed to speak my name.

Until that summer day I heard some
Voices soft and strained with tears
Then I knew that THEY had come
To roll away those wasted years.

Their hearts felt out to hold me
Made me whole like other men
For they had come, just me to see
Drawing me back home with them.

Now I am at peace and free to roam
Wherever my Family speak my name
That day my soul was called back home
For on that day my Family came.