Our theme for Spring 2025 is War & Peace.
THE INDIAN LABOUR CORPS ON THE WESTERN FRONT 1916-1918 Indian troops burning charcoal in the Forest of Brotonne, 22 January 1918. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205244349
Image Permission: IWM (Q 8495)
Submission Guidelines
Please send up to 4 poems as a single Word document attachment (with your name at the start of the attachment’s name) to submit@wordsforthewild.co.uk. Poems should be a maximum of 40 lines.
Please send up to 2 stories as a single Word document attachment (with your name at the start of the attachment’s name) to submit@wordsforthewild.co.uk. Stories should be a maximum of around 2,000 words.
Use WAR & PEACE as the subject of your email.
Closing date for the theme will be 30th May. Please bear with us if you experience a delay in our response to your submission.
WAR DOGS DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR, WESTERN FRONT, 1918 A group of dog handlers stand with their dogs at the British Army kennels near Etaples, 20 April 1918. The rows of kennels can be seen behind them. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205213159
Image Permission: IWM (Q 29549)
AUSTRALIAN FORCES IN THE MIDDLE EAST A Squadron, 9th Australian Light Horse Regiment encamped in the Jordan Valley near Jericho, 17 August 1918. Fighting as mounted infantry, the men of the Light Horse were mostly bushmen used to handling horses and rifles, and they could tolerate the summer heat of Palestine. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205213127
Image Permission : IWM (E(AUS)5559)
We are happy to take previously published work. If you would like to submit, please send up to four poems or up to two short stories in a word document to: submit@wordsforthewild.co.uk with your name in the attachment’s name. We look forward to going wherever you take us.
Other image credits:
Wild Flowers: Louise
Sun and Moon Bru_nO via Pixabay
Pony Trap – Susannah in Russia 1917: Amanda
Horse’s Eye: Pezibear Pixabay
War & Peace
In memory of Kevin Barrett
Our theme for Spring 2025 is War & Peace.
We hardly need an introduction to this theme; War seems to be all around us in one form or another. Peace, less so.
Perhaps a few concepts might be worth considering.
By definition, War is characterised by widespread violence, destruction and mortality. Peace may be defined as an absence or cessation of hostilities.
The natural world is always impacted.
It’s a huge theme with a vast array of associated emotions but consider your focus. It might be more powerful to tone down the rhetoric, focus on minutiae or perhaps not. You might choose to explore either War or Peace or both. Perhaps it is worth repeating, remember how the natural world is impacted.
We would like to dedicate this theme to Kevin Barrett who was a long time member of Winchester Muse and fine poet.
Kevin Barrett was born in Winchester where he was very active on the local poetry scene. He studied with the Open University, obtaining an honours degree in humanities and literature. He won the Orbis International Journal’s Readers Award and his poem “Winter Solstice” was Hampshire County Council’s poem of the day. He was published in several journals and anthologies and his pamphlet I Died in Hell. (They Call it Passchendale) and his first collection were published in 2017. Kevin will be remembered for his powerful war poetry.
Here is a link to Kevin’s wonderful poem, The Trees. Scroll down to read another of Kevin’s poems ‘Wounded in Action’.
Wounded in Action
K.J. Barrett
First published in 2024 by the Open University in Openings 41.
L