Poems (added to the Manchester Guardian, November 8, 1913)
DESTROYERS DAMAGED IN NIGHT EXERCISES
IN THAMES ESTUARY
The Teviot’s Bows Were Damaged – The
Dee Had a Rent Astern
M.P. AT WRONG MEETING
Fog Adding to Excitement at By-Election
MAD KING OTTO OF BAVARIA
Conversations with the Invisible
THE REIGN OF TERROR IN MACEDONIA
Servian Persecution – Worse than the Turks
*
Militarism’s same boat, the hard
on collision… (Elections? Politicians
closing in, descending…) Monarchy
mad, all kings talking to their
selves… Heaven scent?
Mosques, Cross
fire…
Woken Poems (from the Manchester Guardian, December 1,
1913)
MR. CHURCHILL AND NAVAL AVIATION
First Lord of the Admiralty Returns
from Tour of Naval Flying School in Eastchurch
He Made Two Flights – He Slept Aboard
the Enchantress
TROOPS CALLED OUT IN ALSACE
Strained Relations between German
Garrison and People of Zabern
Old Grievance Leads to New Disorders –
Kaiser Said to be Furious
CALL FOR PAUSE IN GERMAN ARMAMENT
INCREASES
Baron von Hertling, Premier of Bavaria,
says “people will not be able to bear any further burdens”
ARMAMENT EXPENDITURE
Protest by the Free Church Council –
£45,000,000 Spent This Year
Four More Dreadnoughts, Costing
£2,750,000 Each, To Be Laid Down in 1914-15
Speakers Criticise Mr. Churchill as
“Unsafe Leader”
*
Safe hands? The sleepwalking Lord,
quite enchanted… (Flight making
the return to Earth impossible?)
Troops, people carried too far: rigid
ranks, disordered shadows. (Fit to burst,
if the Kaiser increases
any more…) Iron Law: the path to war laid long
before…
Sean Howard is the author of seven collections of poetry, most recently Overlays: Scored Poems (Gaspereau Press, 2025). His poetry has been widely published in Canada, the US, UK, and elsewhere, and featured in The Best of the Best Canadian Poetry in English (Tightrope Books, 2017).
