Our student presidents and new Poet Laureate, Klara, represented BSB at the Armistice Day ceremony in Brussels on 6 November. Klara shared her powerful, original poem, “To Be Remembered,” marking her first official commission and public recital in her new role. Her words resonated deeply with all those gathered, honouring those who sacrificed their lives for peace.
We are proud to join together as a school in reflection and remembrance, paying tribute to those who gave so much.
Here is Klara’s first commissioned poem as BSB’s new Poet Laureate, which she read out in her first public recital in the role at the Armistice Day ceremony in Brussels.
A hail of bullets.
Scorching, blazing mayhem.
Rifles crack and hit.
I imagine – I see them:
Through trenches wading,
Leaping yard over yard,
Or even waiting
Scared and scarred.
Distressed.
60 million souls,
In the war’s tempest,
Clashing on murky knolls.
The message is clear:
Nobody deserves war:
No one should feel it,
Hear it
Or see it.
The rattle of guns.
The hiss of every flame
The last breaths from lungs.
The pistols taking aim
The nearing tank’s growl
The fierce grenades falling
Even long after,
We must all remember
their valour,
The eleventh hour,
The eleventh day,
The eleventh month,
Those that passed,
the peace we aim to retain
came from their steadfast
and their pain.
Treaties scrawled and signed.
Those left behind
Bloom in their bloodshed.
Rising in red.
In every poppy,
Their souls are free
And in the cerise
The hope of peace.
