War Poetry Quotes

“Lost

In black as solid as a mire
In a land no one would die for
In a time I was lost
To anyone who ever loved me
The world set itself on fire
And the sky collapsed above me

In a place no one could call home
In a place I breathed and slept
In a battle no one understood
That continued all the same
I sat defenseless and alone
With the insignificance of my name

In the midst of the Lord’s birth
On a night meant to be peaceful
In a country of the Prophet
Where women don’t live free
I spoke to God from the shaking Earth
And prayed my mother would forgive me

In a city without power
In a desert torn by religion
In a bank between two rivers
We added up the decade’s cost
And glorified the final hour
Of a war that everyone had lost

In the dust of helplessness
In a concrete bunker
In a fate I chose myself
I waited without remorse
To fight again as recompense
For wasted lives and discourse

-an original poem about an attack on our base in Iraq during the Arab Spring”
― Dianna Skowera

“Show yourselves men my friends, and keep a stout heart. Think of your honour. With all men’s eyes upon you it is a shame to be a coward. He that fights and will not run may live to see another sun. He that runs and will not fight is bound to die and serves him right.”
― Homer, Iliad

“There is a monstrous garden in the sky
Nightly they sow it fresh. Nightly it springs,
Luridly splendid, towards the moon on high.
Red-poppy flares, and fire-bombs rosy-bright
Shell-bursts like hellborn sunflowers, gold and white
Lilies, long-stemmed, that search the heavens' height...
They tend it well, these gardeners on wings!

How rich these blossoms, hideously fair
Sprawling above the shuddering citadel
As though ablaze with laughter! Lord, how long
Must we behold them flower, ruthless, strong
Soaring like weeds the stricken worlds among
Triumphant, gay, these dreadful blooms of hell?

O give us back the garden that we knew
Silent and cool, where silver daisies lie,
The lovely stars! O garden purple-blue
Where Mary trailed her skirts amidst the dew
Of ageless planets, hand-in-hand with You
And Sleep and Peace walked with Eternity.....

But here I sit, and watch the night roll by.
There is a monstrous garden in the sky!

(written during an air raid, London, midnight, October 1941)”
― Margery Lawrence

“Pardon if all the cleanness and the beauty
Brave rhythym and the immemorial sea
Ensare us sometimes with their siren song,
Forgetful of our murderous intentions.
Through our uneasy peacetime carnival
Cold sweat of death holds us like a dew;
Even this grey machinery of murder
Holds beauty and the promise of a future.”
― Norman Hampson

“The war came as I took a step outside
and my mother knelt whispering to my ear
When the war came
the soldiers carried faces painted with stars
and they fell to our footsteps,
riding without a shadow into the light
Without heat, the sun”
― Tamara Rendell, Mystical Tides

“Ne'er Fade Away by Stewart Stafford

The hillside piper's requiem,
Guides old soldier's bones,
To slain brothers of his youth,
No longer a marching memory.

His scars, Valhalla's roadmap,
His medals, coins for Charon,
His conquests, the beacon fire,
His blood scours the path ahead.

This churned earth is now home,
Weeping craters, foxholes beatified,
Barbed wire hands joined in praying,
The minefield of life cleared for us all.

© Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“I sought his giggles
beneath the ashes
where all his dreams
found home...”
― Lila Marquez, Line Breaker: A Collection of Poems

“building bombed, beams through flesh
buried under rubble
suffocated to death
but only beheading is barberic to the West
#Gaza”
― Remi Kanazi, Before the Next Bomb Drops: Rising Up from Brooklyn to Palestine

“The Armless Tics by Stewart Stafford

Never again, the blustering brass said,
Inked in blood, my generation dead,
Human meat carved with lunatic aplomb,
No cowering allowed from gun or bomb.

Lice, rats, and mud—war zeal’s reality.
Trench foot and poisoned-gas lethality,
Churned hellscape, where no man can be,
Scribbling letters home to preserve sanity.

The artillery’s heartbeat, now silent, aghast,
Shells raining on future, present, and past,
On a last keepsake bullet, I etched “11-11”,
Through influenza, faint prayers to Heaven.

© 2025, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“The hunger for power has made them cruel
They shed humanity and shed every rule
They bow to the devil, deny what is just
Scatter the innocent and trample to dust

They speak of peace, yet sharpen their steel,
Call the weak "Third World" and aim to kill.
Freedom of speech they loudly preach,
But wealth and greed are their true reach.

They silence the voices that rise against them,
Behind angelic masks, hearts are dark, damn.

They say that weapons were hidden deep,
A kind of danger that will never sleep.
So armies marched on innocent lands,
And crushed the weak with ruthless hands.

No one knows
how many were trampled under boot,
Girls stripped in the street, women stomped under foot

Blood flowed like rivers, streets ran red,
Children were orphaned, shattered, and dead.

Iraq burned beneath an open sky,
Thousands of mothers learned to cry

Greed for oil brought them to this land,
Lust for wealth left cruelty with no end.

That wasn't enough; they targeted many more,
From Vietnam to Kabul, from Libya to Lebanon's shore.
Across Africa, so many places even heaven's door
Bombs rained on innocents, victims of war.

In halls of power, the deals were made,
Morals and mercy began to fade.
Oil and gas, silver and gold,
Every treasure they tried to hold.

They dream of splitting Russia into parts,
To rule the West and Asia through dark arts.

They tore the USSR apart,
Spread poison into the heart.

Hard to see the rise of another nation,
So they spread chaos, and call it "liberation.

They whispered to Ukraine promises and favors,
And scripted a war between two neighbors.

Their principles nailed upon the cross,
Forgetting what Jesus' crucifixion cost.

With thirst for blood, wealth, and dominion,
Two ancient foes at last in union.

Some came to Palestine as exiles,
Scorned by time and European trials.
Slowly, shrewdly, they grabbed the land.
Palestine seized in ugly bloody hand.

Those who once gave shelter and bread
Now mourn the countless children dead.

Hind Rajab is not alone in their cruelty,
Countless children lost to that same brutality.

They build their dreamworld
on Palestinians' cries,
On broken homes and silenced lives.
A kingdom rising from despair,
While justice fades into thin air.

United Nations, blind before oppression,
Deaf to the cries born of aggression.
A helpless puppet in a ruthless game,
Baking its bread on bodies in flame.

They call themselves peacekeepers,
The biggest lie the world ever hears.
They built NATO
Just to threaten the world with fears.

Fear of Russia they loudly proclaim,
To trap Europe was their real aim.

Nations trapped in a game of fear
Believing the lies they choose to hear.

But behind the shield they offered,
Another plan was laid.
Their lands slowly turned into bases
Where foreign armies stayed.

Whispers rise around Iran again,
All know what hidden aims remain.

In the name of women’s freedom,
They claim to fight,
Yet countless schoolgirls paid the cost,
The school was bombed, was that right?

For them, no law, no rule holds sway
They're street thugs who take and walk away

The White House sends black deeds forth,
No matter how many die, victory is worth.
Cafe Ground Zero cooks recipe of vision
with no shame, they celebrate every invasion

Beneath the greed and false flag,
Old wars returned in a new hashtag.

This nation, ruined and ruled by
the power hungry and cruel,
Dreams to lead the world while breaking every rule.
The hunger for power has made them cruel,
they shed humanity and rewrite every rule.”
― Mohammed Zaki Ansari, "Zaki's Gift Of Love"