I am looking for poem, length must be about 1/2 page or less. The Author of the poem must be non-american/english and the poem's theme must be some form of survival!

Help!

The Man He Killed
by Thomas Hardy

"Had he and I but met
By some old ancient inn,
We should have set us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!

"But ranged as infantry,
And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me,
And killed him in his place.

"I shot him dead because--
Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was;
That's clear enough; although

"He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,
Off-hand like--just as I--
Was out of work--had sold his traps--
No other reason why.

Yes; quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow down
You'd treat, if met where any bar is,
Or help to half a crown."

I think Thomas Hardy is ruled out, being English.

Here’s a light-hearted one by Australian poet John Manifold (1915-1985). A modernised version of Odysseus surviving the sound and sight of the sirens who used to lure sailors to their doom.

The Sirens

Odysseus heard the sirens; they were singing
Music by Wolf and Weinberger and Morley
About a region where the swans go winging,
Vines are in colour, girls are growing surely

Into nobility, and pylons bringing
Leisure and power to farms that live securely
Without a landlord. Still, his eyes were stinging
With salt and sea blink, and the ropes hurt sorely.

Odysseus saw the sirens; they were charming,
Blonde, with snub breasts and little neat posteriors,
But could not take his mind off the alarming

Weather report, his mutineers in irons,
The radio failing; it was bloody serious.
In twenty minutes he forgot the sirens.

The Author of the poem must be non-american/english

I interpreted that as meaning that the author must not be American, but must be English. I'll have to search for some John McCrae I guess.


Les