The Shropshire Star is today throwing its backing behind a not-for-profit organisation which aims to help service personnel and others affected by war find an outlet for their emotions through prose and poetry, writes Toby Neal.
Forces Literary Organisation Worldwide for All has been co-founded by Mac Macdonald from Telford, who was a soldier for 22 years.
It is based on the idea that, by writing down their thoughts and emotions, those who are in the forces, or have served in the forces, or their families and friends, can enjoy a therapeutic benefit and form of “self counselling” through getting things off their chest.
“People in the forces don’t want to be seen as ‘soft’ and don’t readily want to admit their emotions. But with this website they can either use their name, or not, as they wish, and say exactly how they feel in a safe environment,” said Mac.
And those who take advantage do not need to be a modern-day Wilfred Owen – the World War One poet from Shrewsbury who, in the minds of many, was the greatest war poet of all.
Although particularly aimed at serving servicemen and servicewomen, the site is open to all, and those using the outlet have included a senior Army officer (using a false name), rank-and-file troops who have seen action in the world’s hotspots, and even a woman who saw a television report which affected her deeply.
“We publish things ‘as is’. We don’t do a spell check or correct the grammar. That’s something the troops appreciate, because they know they don’t have to be good poets or write good English,” said Mac.
FLOW for All received a major boost when Dame Vera Lynn became its patron, and on November 1 the 91-year-old wartime singing legend launched “Voices of the Poppies”, an anthology of poems selected by members and visitors to the website.
It is being sold for £8.99 with the cash being ploughed back into the organisation, which will help its drive to become a registered charity.
To become a charity, FLOW for All must prove a minimum annual income of £5,000. One key way of doing this is to find businesses and enterprises which, for a minimum payment of £250, will be given a web page on the website, through which they can advertise and also have a visible show of support for the cause.
Mac says that while FLOW for All needs the financial support of businesses to raise enough to become a registered charity, many businesses will only give their support to registered charities.
“It’s a Catch 22,” he said.
Glasgow-born Mac (his real name is Peter, but even his family call him Mac) is 50, and lives at The Rock.
He joined the RAOC in 1978 and his last tour was at Donnington, from where he left the service in 2000 with the rank of Sergeant Major, having served around the world, including in Northern Ireland.
He is now a training consultant, working part time to allow himself as much time as he can to FLOW for All.
The original idea came years ago when a woman who had lost a close friend in the military, knowing about his knowledge of websites, asked him how she could get some poems posted on a website.
“She found release by writing poetry, and thought it would be a good idea to let other people do that too.”
That led to the creation of a website called Forces Poetry.
“The therapeutic value people got from it took us by surprise,” said Mac.
Not everyone expresses themselves in poetry, and a natural development was a Forces Stories website.
The creation of FLOW for All has brought everything together under one umbrella, and acts as a “front of house” for four websites – FLOW for All, Forces Poetry, Forces Stories, and a contributors’ forum.
Incidentally it is called FLOW for All rather than just FLOW because that simpler website name was not available.
The BBC has also picked up on the work, and a number of FLOW’s poets are being interviewed as part of a programme on Radio 4 on November 16 at 4.30pm.
Now Mac is anxious for publicity to spread the message and raise awareness about the organisation, and in so doing help raise the cash which will support its work and take it closer to registered charity status.
“We need to get people to know about what we do, and to send in poems and so on. Our belief is that there are thousands of people out there who have got emotional baggage, for want of a better word, and want to express their feelings and thoughts. If they can do it in this way, that’s great.”
How you can help
Become a Corporate Partner. For a minimum payment of £250 a local business, firm, or organisation will receive a page on the FLOW for All website. This is both a visible show of support for the work of the group, but also a billboard on which a firm or organisation can say something about itself.
Buy the book. “Voices of the Poppies” is an anthology of selected works from the Forces Poetry website. It has an introduction by Dame Vera Lynn, and forewords by Deborah Tainsh from America, whose son was killed in Iraq, and Graham Knight, whose son was killed in a Nimrod crash in Afghanistan. It is available through www.silverwoodbooks.co.uk, the website of the publisher SilverWood, and costs £8.99 softback, or £14.99 hardback, plus postage.
Donate. Contributions to the work of FLOW for All can be made directly through its website, www.flowforall.org
14 Comments
I am a Site Moderator for Flow For All, and being an ex-Soldier myself, support this organisation 100 per cent.
It is a ‘ Home from home ‘, and I don’t know how I’d cope without it !
Please support us, so we can help others !
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Brilliant, I for one will be donating to this cause. This just the sort of facility our forces need. Getting things of ones chest is so important, any decent councellor will tell you that.
Well done FLOW FOR ALL and well done The Shropshire Star for supporting this very worthy cause. Great websites all of them.
Regards
Peter
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May I pass on my thanks to the Star for publishing this article. I visited the poetry site today and was touched by many of the poems. Especially on this day (Europe has been marking the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I)it’s good to know that many young people are aware.
Thank you Mr Macdonald and your volunteers.
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Very good article star
Good to see you are concentrating on important issues now instead of penguins being thrown out of Telford Park
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I heard the following famous poem by Wilfred Owen recited on the Irish Radio station RTE1 just before 11am on Armistice Day:
DULCE ET DECORUM EST
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori.
————————–
Did many survivors of WW1 from Shropshire get recruited into the “Black and Tans” for service in Ireland?
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I have used this site and can’t praise it enough. I am a Library Assistant and I think that poetry is a good medium for soldiers and ex-soldiers who need to feel they are not alone, that they can read poems posted and also crystalise their thoughts too and who knows where it might lead? To some it could mean salvation, to others the start of a hobby or a new career. You never know until you try.
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Mac,
What can i say?
Brilliant idea, i love it and shall promote it as far and wide as i can
All the very best for the future
Ronnie
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My congratulations to FLOW for all. This is a wonderful site and should be fully supported. We all watch with sadness the news articles of what our young brave men have to endure for their country. I am sure that a great many people will benefit from this site and I congratulate Mr Macdonald and his volunteers for all their hard work. I hope that there are many many patriotic Company Directors, Businessmen and women who read this article and show their support for this worthy site. £250 wont even buy them a decent advert in a magazine but in this case will get them a page on the WORLD WIDE WEB and will also show how they support those who have given so much for us.
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I wish to say that this Web-Site is providing for our troops a unique and vitally important service. It is abundantly clear from the experiences thus far in the twin campaigns that we are committed to what may be a long and bitter conflict on both fronts.
The BBC Radio 4 program aired last Sunday was an inspiration to us all. The poems and thoughts expressed in that program really made you think and the poem the Mask We Wear struck at the very heart of human emotion. Listen to it here http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/pip/fhdqn.
I watched The Fallen on BBC two this weekend and was also deeply moved by the thoughts and deepest suffering of all those involved. It is the turn of this once great nation to stand up and be counted in a way we have not done for far too long. WE MUST support our troops, we have a “duty of care” to support the welfare of those who risk their all for others and for their families too.
If we, the great British public do not give support to this cause then we as a nation have no right to call our men and woman to arms in our name.
Every business in not just Shropshire but the whole of the UK should give to this cause and as mentioned above the publicity alone must give a good return on such a small investment which could mean the world of difference to our troops and their loved ones.
Do not just read this say yes and then falter, as they do not falter for us.
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An outlet for tales of war, this is a powerful outlet for all those suffering from trauma, As a veteran of Dunkirk, and Normandy, i am proud of the efforts of Mac, and Annie who started it all off, and to have subscribed to their site, and to be included in “Voices of the Poppies” , The work of many of the writers are not published, their efforts give so much help to the many of those who suffer so much,
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The hands Flow for All are reaching out for are being grasped. It is time for the general public to show their hands and support too! Pride is a word we must never lose and support, not a passing glance but real and long term.
I am proud to be part of Flow for All and to have a poem in Voices of the Poppies, knowing the little bit I give is making a difference.
Britain needs to be re united once again.
Jan Hedger
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A short poem I wrote, the words speak for themselves!
Jan Hedger
Left on the Train
Another soldier died today
Relegated to page seven
Behind the tabloid news of
‘Crack’ celebrities, and
Footballers cheating on their wives
He deserved better than that
Another soldier died today
Another family grieves
Footnote; I wrote this, after picking up a discarded newspaper off the train, and was disturbed that the death of a soldier was indeed on page seven. I couldn’t get it out of my head – hence these words.
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I have posted many poems on this wonderful forum and one of my poems has been included in the book Voices of the Poppies. I have to say, that the work being done behind the scenes at FLOW for All is outstanding and those involved deserve so much credit for starting this site. I started writing poetry when my son was first posted to Iraq earlier this year, poetry was my release of the many built up tensions I was experiencing. I have had my work published and I have been told on numerous occasions from many people that my words have brought comfort to others in the same situation as myself. I would highly recommend that people do have a try and write their feelings and emotions down, paper does not speak back, but allows one to offload until they have finished and then they can read it back. Well done FLOW for All a site I will follow and treasure forever.
Michaela Turner (aka Kale) proud mother of a serving soldier
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Forces poetry
Forces poetry, from within
To make you cry or make you grin
A smashing site to read and post
With very warm welcome from every host
Avatars there to bring memories back
Quickly put in place, all Thanks to Mac
A Poem at first so hard may seem
Don’t ever stop, carry on and dream
Giving up, not an option or choice
Share your thoughts; let us hear your voice
If these notions seems absurd
See the power of written word
It may calm the mind or stem your fear
May raise a smile or bring a tear
If the words don’t seem quite Right
Just carry on enjoy the site
Have a go that’s what you should do
Put pen to paper and join the crew
David Killelay
Keep up the good work well done everybody
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