Remembering War
Audrey van Ryn 12 April 2026
for Auckland Museum's 2026 'Lest We Forget' poetry competition
War is failure.
It is a failure of our humanity,
of our empathy,
of our reason,
of our intelligence.
War is success.
It is a success for weapons dealers,
for propagandists,
for governments to gain resources,
for governments to induce people to kill.
To learn from our failures
and our successes,
we must remember our past
so that we can allow all the people of the world
to have a future,
a future without fear.
It is a failure of our humanity,
of our empathy,
of our reason,
of our intelligence.
War is success.
It is a success for weapons dealers,
for propagandists,
for governments to gain resources,
for governments to induce people to kill.
To learn from our failures
and our successes,
we must remember our past
so that we can allow all the people of the world
to have a future,
a future without fear.
Audrey van Ryn
12 April 2026
Archibald Baxter’s Poetry
A collection of some of his works edited by Caitlin Duff: Download here
Poems
Redemptionby Jenny Longstaff
Archibald Baxter’s legacy
If I must die
Refaat Alareer (1979 - 2023)
Lest We Forget
Frances Palmer
for Auckland Museum's 2026 'Lest We Forget' poetry competition
Remembering War
Audrey van Ryn 12 April 2026
for Auckland Museum's 2026 'Lest We Forget' poetry competition
The Soldier and The Poet
28 July 2025
The C.O’s
6 November 2018
Kevin Clements with thanks to Leunig
22 August 2015
The Reading of the Names
11 August 2015
In The Flanders Snow
11 August 2015
The Military Museum
John Moller
a military officer in a NZ Army unit in Vietnam
The Greatest Lie
John Moller
a military officer in a NZ Army unit in Vietnam
Last Post by Carol Ann Duffy (2009)
It Will Make a Fine Hospital
by Andrew Dimitri
(from Winter in Northern Iraq, The Hippocrates Press 2019)
Ring Them Bells
by Marvin Hubbard
Witness
by Marvin Hubbard
È la solita storia: Remembering Bach Mai, Yemen, Ukraine and All the Faceless Dead
by Bob Zisk, New Mexico, 2023