A View from Finland
Poets have always responded to war by writing poetry — it’s what we do. Following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on 24th February this year people started sending The Friday Poem their poems about the war — poems about resistance, poems of protest, and poems about specific individuals affected by the fighting. These are stories of courage, grief and hope. We decided to publish some every week as Friday Poems for Ukraine. Here’s ‘A View from Finland’ by Eileen Anne Gordon. Slava Ukraini!
A View from Finland
March 2022
Each year you came from Russia
to visit me, your son-in-law.
We shook hands the Finnish way.
Your grandsons raced into your arms,
hugs, kisses and tears.
Together we took flowers to your daughter’s grave.
We were family.
I sent my precious boys to you,
a month at a time.
I wanted them to speak their mother’s tongue,
know cousins, aunts, uncles,
meet their mother’s friends,
go to Russian school.
We were family.
My own visits to your home brought peace.
We walked the forest-trails she had walked
and when my Russian failed,
a much loved brother-in-law translated.
We talked of many things, although
your bear was always lurking.
We were family.
Now my boys are angry with their cousins
and the cousins are angry with my boys.
An armistice is hammered out.
We will not talk about the war
which you insist is not a war.
This lie destroys us all.
We were a family.
