World Trade Center Art Project

The Long War

Less passionate the long war throws
its burning thorn about all men,
caught in one grief, we share one wound
and cry one dialect of pain.

We have forgot who fired the house,
whose easy mischief spilt first blood,
under one raging roof we lie
the fault no longer understood.

But as twisted arms embrace
the desert where our cities stood,
death's family likeness in each face
must show, at last, our brotherhood.

- Laurie Lee (1914-1997)
English poet, memoirist, and novelist, best-known for his autobiographical trilogy CIDER WITH ROSIE (1959), AS I WALKED OUT ONE MIDSUMMER MORNING (1969), and A MOMENT OF WAR (1991).

The trilogy depicts Lee's boyhood in the country, his journey to London to seek his fortune and see the world, and his experiences in the Spanish Civil War.