Photo: Corder Catchpool.
Poem: On two fronts
'They bided their time, and it has come.'
They bided their time, and it has come.
Beating a battered drum,
the rim, that wooden hoop circle of sound
that holds the skin to account.
The Government gives this to the governed,
their opportunity to do the worst day’s work
they have ever done.
To do battle with their conscience then
as young boys made into men, simply do battle.
Kill one another, each led by different influencers
who have raised them and provided succour
from the internet of liberty.
To labour is to pray, to pray is harder labour,
harder than the terror that has brought them
to two fronts, one with the heaviest
of military metal, professionally weaponised,
the other with paving slabs, rocks and breaking glass.
And if others, peacemakers, want to open up a third front
of non-violent poems and prayers be prepared
to meet the full force of opposition to what you dare to do.
Here the fate of Corder Catchpool in 1917 is remembered:
I came first, two years hard labour, commuted to one year
hard labour ‘in recognition of services in ambulance work.’
You will remember that I said I did not make my statement
with a view to mitigation, but in explanation.
Steve says: ‘On Two Fronts: Letters of a conscientious objector (1914-18) was written by Corder Catchpool, a Quaker conscientious objector. I am indebted to Michael and Margaret Baker for donating an original copy of the book to Ashburton Meeting House.’
