Words from War: A collection of poetry about conflict

LoveReading4Kids Says

In his foreword to this collection of poetry about conflict, Joseph Coelho states that poetry is the medium best suited to deal with the emotions generated by war, and the poems he has chosen provide readers with a clear and vivid understanding of its impact.

There are poems from across centuries, about conflicts from the Trojan War to more recent bloodshed in Syria and Ukraine. We see through the eyes of soldiers and civilians, as well as those, like its readers, attempting to comprehend events that happened in years past, or are happening elsewhere.

Poets featured include Tennyson, Paul Dunbar, Wilfred Owen and Michael Rosen as well as those not much older than readers: Amineh Abou Kerec, whose poem Lament for Syria was written when she was just thirteen, and Ukrainian Maria Docheva, who wrote her poem, Letters to a Dead Soldier, at just twelve. Their words and verses have exactly the intended impact, bringing alive variously heroism, grief and anger, sadness for what is lost and hope for better things to come.

Each poem is illustrated by Flora Delargy, her watercolour images adding even more resonance to the words, and she has painted portraits of each poet too which accompany information about them and the war that is their subject.

The final poem in the collection is a new one by Coelho himself, containing a call out for what might be possible ‘if we put down our posturing’. A thought-provoking, moving anthology, beautifully presented, and one to which readers will return, I’m sure.

Andrea Reece

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