What use poetry? Not just to waffle about personal anguish, but to help us all make sense of the big issues. Inspired words speak to every generation. Here is a homage to two greats:

KIPLING & HOMER

Singers of comradeship and courage,
Self-knowledge, self-mastery through the struggle,
Teamwork, discipline in the scrummage,
Leadership, loyalty, through triumph or bungle.

Seers, seeing clearly, standing aloof,
Or sharing a drink and yarns, when the crisis is over,
Seeing, amid the turmoil, lasting truth
Of daring or caring for one another.

Lying, like gems in a lava-flow,
Treasures of human growth: courage, speed,
Kindness, initiative, endurance; we owe
To times of pressure, in response to need.

And you, the seers, seeing the glint
And flicker of lasting worth amid the pain,
Sing us the music of shared effort; a hint
Of the fire that forges the steel; the gain
Whose price is bereavement and grief;
The wisdom hard-won, the kindness determined to mend;
To work despite anguish, to labour for others' relief.
You still sing the splendour of spirit that shines to the end.