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Norfolk Nurse Edith Cavell was arrested in August 1915 and shot as a spy the following October. Those eight rifle shots into the body of one nurse arguably cost Germany the war as (in combination with the sinking of the Lusitania) it changed public opinion in America in favour of joining the Allied side. But her reported dying words affirm a victory of the human spirit over all sides.

lyrics

She sees the pale gold August wheat,
The oaken greens of home,
A mind’s-eye Norfolk harvest wrapped
Around October’s bones.

6 paces off, 8 rifles point,
Death scarves her blue-grey eyes,
The woman stands and prays and waits
And still no shot arrives…

Her life is flashing by, the days
With Eddy on the beach
‘When life was fresh and beautiful,
The country dear and sweet.’

‘Love of country’s not enough
And when they shoot me dead
Let bitterness and hatred die,’
Our Norfolk angel said.

… The clinic clean and welcoming
The poor and most forlorn;
A mother to her nurses clad
In angels’ uniforms.

A spider crawled across the floor,
One screamed, would stamp it dead,
‘A woman doesn’t take a life,
She gives it,’ Edith said.

The British held the line at Mons,
The French were in retreat,
All stranded men came to her door
Through Brussels’ conquered streets.

‘Love of country’s not enough
And when they shoot me dead
Let bitterness and hatred die,’
Our Norfolk angel said.

One nurse too hot for Prussian pride
They bullied as a spy,
Ede sent her home – with army secrets
Bandaged to her thigh!

La Libre Belgique was her text,
The Life of Christ her God;
Said Pinkhoff, Bergan, Mayer, Quien:
‘Give her the firing squad.’

4 sneaks and spies to smoke her out,
3 days’ interrogation.
She wouldn’t lie…. They shot her dead
For love of more than nation.

‘Love of country’s not enough
And when they shoot me dead
Let bitterness and hatred die,’
Our Norfolk angel said.

credits

from It All Comes Out In The Wash (album), released November 22, 2019
Gareth Calway - voice, vocals; drum;
The photograph is of the bard in Elsing Church in September 2016 as part of the 'Doin different' ballads tour.
The ballad was published in 'The Eastern Daily Press' as part of Cavell's anniversary commemoration and then in 'Doin Different, 39 New Ballads from the East of England' garethcalway.blogspot.co.uk/p/doin-different.html.

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Bardonthewire England, UK

Performance poetry with a library card (voice & drum, folk ballads, ghazals, sonnets, beat poems, sound poems, raps) much of it happening 'on the street' or jostling to be heard in the tavern. Researched stories of folk heroes and real folk. History for you. Bardic poetry striving (as all arts do) for the condition of music (from punk though rap to to prog). Visionary lit. for your average Blake. ... more

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