On November 12th, in Remembrance week, we had a moving and appropriate online event, which actually should have taken place at the end of the Mayors for Peace exhibition in February, but had to be postponed. Bristol actor David Collins read poems based on recent conflicts: “What War Does to Us: 1914 until now”. David started the programme with poems from the First World War (the so-called ‘Great War’), the horrific starting point of modern total war, with poems of Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and others, and then went on, with new voices, some well known and some not, continuing the same themes on what has happened since in Vietnam, Bosnia, Northern Ireland, and on how we try to survive and live with ever-present conflict. David read from poems by poets as diverse as W.H.Auden, Robert Lowell and Michael Rosen, and ‘Jerusalem’ by James Fenton had particular resonance for many who dialled in. We were delighted that Helga Wawra and Wilhelm Knicker joined in from Hannover, and hope that after Hannover participation also in the online AGM, this will become a regular feature.
