“Vergissmeinnicht,” by Keith Douglas
November 11, 2010
For Veterans Day. Forget me not.
Keith Douglas is one of the best poets of World War 2, in which he was killed in 1944. I had never heard of him, though, until a few years ago when I attended a talk about him and reading of his poems by Welsh poet Owen Sheers. For me, he was a revelation, this man with a bullet’s eye view of war.
Later today, BBC Four TV is airing a documentary about Douglas’s life, presented by Sheers. Click here to watch, when it becomes available online. In the mean time, here’s an article Sheers wrote about Douglas for the Guardian in 2005 that contains much of what was in his talk.
“Vergissmeinnicht” is in Keith Douglas’s collection, Simplify Me When I’m Dead (Faber & Faber, 2010).
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Belly up, it's A Poetry Feed. 
Karsten-Thanks for introducing this marvelous poem.
Sure thing, Jana. I hope you stop by again–I put a few poems up every week! KP
This reminds me very much of “Dulce et Decorum est” by Wilfred Owen.