Pantoum - For My Paternal Grandfather

The Pantoum - I don’t think I’ve encountered this poetry form before. I’ve played about with it during the last few days, but didn’t write anything worth sharing, and I had something in my head that I thought might work but I’m saving it for another time. Instead, my inspiration, for what it’s worth, came from my paternal grandfather’s Bible and the handwritten inscription inside, penned exactly a hundred years ago yesterday.

  

 I wonder, was it hot like today?

And was he eager, and was he keen

To get to Belgium, where he would stay

In the summer of nineteen-eighteen. 

And was he eager, and was he keen

Joining his comrades to go to war?

In the summer of nineteen-eighteen,

Manchester boys, not travelled before. 

Joining his comrades to go to war,

Weighed down with stuff and Army khaki.

Manchester boys, not travelled before

Building up some camaraderie. 

Weighed down with stuff and Army khaki,

Merriment from the back of the truck,

Building up some camaraderie.

Take care now boys, and the best of luck. 

Merriment from the back of the truck,

George Hales was with that Manchester lot.

Take care now boys, and the best of luck.

And I’m still wondering, was it hot? 

Pamela Winning 2018

 I don’t know much about his time in the First World War, only that he saw action in July and August, 1918 and returned safely home.

In 1922, he married Miss Henrietta Brearey, otherwise known as my lovely Nanna Hetty.

The Bible was given to him by Mrs Hyde, Nanna Hetty’s adoptive mother.

 

Thanks for reading, keep cool, Pam x