This is the final one of our 2022 summer internship blog posts, in which Fanni Putz – now a final-year Literature and Creative Writing student at Northumbria University – showcases her creative work coming out of the project and offering a thoughtful, compelling reflection on what it means to write about war now, for someone who has thankfully been spared first-hand experience of war.
There is War…
There is War in the world,
inside, outside, everywhere.
Between countries, cultures, religions,
values, gender, leaders.
There is war inside.
Between couples, inside houses.
Between people, at home,
In my soul…
But where is love and care?
Where is hope, peace and justice?
I am fighting someone else’s war…
It is not my fight, not my war, not my life…
Peace, love and merit!
The world would need these words
to heal all wounds
that bloody politicians caused.
Wearing suit and tie,
that is how they commit crime.
Do not think they protect us, that is just part of manipulation.
It is their fight!
They persuade ordinary people to fight their battle.
It is not our war, it is a war of politicians.
It is not the war of a father who is a loving husband,
while you,
you villains count your billions in your office…
and your only lifegoal is money and power.
How dare you kill millions of people and instigate people against each other?
It is your fight!
The ’Ephemera and writing about war in Britain, 1914 to the present’ project explores the idea of storytelling by marginalized groups and individuals. Ephemera plays an important part of such storytelling that serves to foster a greater understanding of war experience for the public and bereaved families. Writers use ephemera to demonstrate a greater understanding of war experience.
Within this project, I produced a creative piece of work which helped me explore my feelings towards the material. My particular internship research topic was the Falklands War that happened forty years ago. However, this poem is relevant to our present life and everything that is happening around us. In this poem, I endeavoured to achieve an authentic voice by questioning our faith in this world to express my feelings about any kind of war, not only about the Falklands War itself. My goal with this poem is to reach people as I love the idea that writers have the power to express their thoughts and approach a wide audience with the tool of communication. Firstly, I did not feel comfortable writing a fiction or a creative piece about any kind of war because from my point of view, it needs to have an authentic voice. I think, if I did not experience war, I do not have the right, tools or raison d’etre to write about war. Instead, I would interview people who experienced the war and that way the writer’s voice would be more authentic.
The world we live in today is full of conflicts and war. With this in mind, I put my thoughts into words to express myself. In the poem, I highlighted the fact that this war is not only outside but inside as well. It is not only a war of ideologies, values, concepts and narratives but war between people inside their own home and soul. This abstract concept accompanies the poem from beginning to end. The ellipsis is used in the poem to indicate a pause and emphasize uncertainty, insecurity and confusion and to speak for truth. Punctuation has a significant role in the poem. Outside the ellipsis, several question marks and exclamation marks are used to raise attention to this section. ’It is their fight!’ refers to the politicians and those who try to mislead and control us by propaganda campaigns.
I wanted to emphasize that we should believe in our truth as it is not equal to their truth. We should stand up for ourselves and for our future and not let them fill our lives with hatred. The sentences with question marks like ’Where is hope, peace and justice?’ reminds the reader that the lack of these result in uncertainty and we need to find hope, peace and justice in ourselves and bring back to our lives. The epiphany in the poem is the concept when the reader realizes that the war happening outside starts to be present in their soul and home. War is not something that we can exclude.
This poem captures the harsh reality of war—not just between nations, but within our homes and souls. It’s a powerful reminder that war is often fueled by those in power, while ordinary people suffer the consequences. If only peace, love, and justice were truly prioritized, the world would be a different place well written love it.