Task 1 - Background of Children in the Darkness

Children in the Darkness

There are children in the darkness
Who have not seen the light
There are children in the darkness
Who someone will teach to fight

Chalk and blackboards will not be
To this door there is no key
From this life they can not flee
And these children are not free

Could we simply light a candle
Could we give them half a chance
Could we teach them how to read
Could we teach them how to dance

Or will a war consume them
Their body and their soul
Will their life and blood be poured
Down some endless thirsty hole

Back into the darkness
From which there is no flight
Back into the darkness
Into which there shines no light

Henry M Bechtold
2010

Background:
Henry M Bechtold was in Vietnam in 1967 - 68 and again in 1969. He go back often because his soul lives in Vietnam and he go back to visit it from time to time.

He was sitting in his hotel room in Saigon just before Christmas 2009 and he was trying to write a poem about the girls who work in the park and how badly men treat them. He was angry but unable to write anything that did not sound trite or weak. He looked at the TV and the news was on. He did not know what the news reader was saying but in the background was a photo of a small boy with a helmet and an automatic rifle. This poem flowed out. The words just came to him and he typed as fast as he could to get it all down.

Resource taken from - http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html#Children_

To put it in simpler words, the poem is trying to convey the message that the children live in darkness. They are not exposed to the light. They were not given a chance to learn. A chance to study. A chance to do what they like. Instead, they have to start to learn on how to use a gun since young in order to survive. Imagine young children have to start fighting at a very young age, the hardship that the children have to go through; it really catches the reader sympathy for the children. It shows that war is a very dangerous, a very cruel fact to many, especially to the children.