Laurels and Donkeys

Thame , UK: Clutag Press, 2010 Extremely rare chap book of war poetry by Sir Andrew Motion. Poet laureate of the UK from 1999-2009.35 pp.Limited edition. This may have been one of only a few copies sold and may have been pulled by the publisher . I have never seen another copy of this title. Its a sequence of war poems based on memories of the poet's father who landed at D-Day and fought in France and Germany in World War Two,and a series of poems telling soldiers' experiences of war , starting from World War I until the recent wars of Iraq and Afghanistan. This book " was published on Armistice Day 2010 and launched that evening in the Grimond Room , Portcullis House , Palace of Westminster .".a sample . General Petraeus, when the death-count of American troops in Iraq was close to 3,800, said The truth is you never do get used to losses. There is a kind of bad news vessel with holes, and sometimes it drains, then it fills up, then it empties again, leaving in this particular case the residue of a long story involving one soldier who, in the course of his street-patrol, tweaked the antenna on the TV in a bar hoping for baseball, but found instead the snowy picture of men in a circle talking, all apparently angry and perhaps Jihadists. They turned out to be reciting poetry. My life, said the interpreter, is like a bag of flour thrown through wind and into thorn bushes. Then No, no, he said, correcting himself. Like dust in the wind. Like a hopeless man. - Losses. Hardcover. First Edition.. Like New with DJ.