At Goudberg Copse
Mother, send down blessings on this haunted place
where we tripped and fell over barbed
wire into trenches over stumps, rose
and tripped again the whole night through,
where we stumbled on terrible shapes, not flesh and blood forms
but made of a swarm of noxious black darkness.
We buried more than the strength
of the regiment on these terrible ridges.
Please hold us with unbiased compassion.
Hold with compassion the gods
and demons gathered here. Please stay here
and grant your blessings.
_______________
Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr.
Salient
New Directions 2020
Over several decades, Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr., has traced the contours and history of the Ypres Salient, diving deep into the British military archives and walking the haunted battlefield with survey maps in hand. Out of this physical and textural material, through a process of collage and an unexpectedly powerful convergence with a 12th c. Tibetan visualization ritual, Gray has composed a spare, fascinating, lyrical explanation of what she calls "The Missing," in shell-hole and curved trench, by way of magical amulets and the passage through obstacles. (New Directions)
