About the Print
This print was done as a response to being commissioned by The Times for a feature piece to accompany serialisation of Sebastian Faulkes ‘Birdsong’.
I took the poem below as inspiration.
NOW POPPIES GROW
Here, once, a soldier died in stalemate slow
Now where he fell, bright poppies grow.
Once horror reigned and death was rife,
Missing comrades haunted soldier’s life
The shells, the noise, the battle throng,
A whistle foretold sleep eternal long;
For, over the top, he rejoined dead friends
In that sweet peace which never ends
Eighteen or twenty, maybe less,
Soldier’s age of death, upon that crest.
A wasteful loss, a generation flown-
There, lie many, still Unknown
A chilling hush fills the mourning air
They rest here, safe, without age or care
Beneath long grass, under air so still
Peace hides their graves, in trench, on hill
The most worthy monument? A poppied field.
To the carnage? The Iron Harvest yield
But from where the birds in war have flown,
The ghosts of Ypres and Somme live on..
S J Robinson
Bright Poppies Grow ▻ size 370mm x 360mm ▻ silkscreen print ▻ edition 75 ▻ price £210
▻ paper – Arches Aquarelle 365gsm