Henry Reed

Here you will find thePoemUnarmed Combatof poet Henry Reed

Unarmed Combat

在适当的时候你当然都将发行的智慧h Your proper issue; but until tomorrow, You can hardly be said to need it; and until that time, We shall have unarmed combat. I shall teach you. The various holds and rolls and throws and breakfalls Which you may sometimes meet. And the various holds and rolls and throws and breakfalls Do not depend on any sort of weapon, But only on what I might coin a phrase and call The ever-important question of human balance, And the ever-important need to be in a strong Position at the start. There are many kinds of weakness about the body, Where you would least expect, like the ball of the foot. But the various holds and rolls and throws and breakfalls Will always come in useful. And never be frightened To tackle from behind: it may not be clean to do so, But this global war. So give them all you have, and always give them As good as you get; it will always get you somewhere. (You may not know it, but you can tie a Jerry Up without rope; it is one of the things I shall teach.) Nothing will matter if only you are ready for him. The readiness is all. The readiness is all. How can I help but feel I have been here before? But somehow then, I was the tied-up one. How to get out Was always then my problem. And even if I had A piece of rope I was always the sort of person Who threw rope aside. And in my time I had given them all I had, Which was never as good as I got, and it got me nowhere. And the various holds and rolls and throws and breakfalls Somehow or other I always seemed to put In the wrong place. And, as for war, my wars Were global from the start. Perhaps I was never in a strong position. Or the ball of my foot got hurt, or I had some weakness Where I had least expected. But I think I see your point. While awaiting a proper issue, we must learn the lesson Of the ever-important question of human balance. It is courage that counts. Things may be the same again; and we must fight Not in the hope of winning but rather of keeping Something alive: so that when we meet our end, It may be said that we tackled wherever we could, That battle-fit we lived, and though defeated, Not without glory fought.