Early Spring, 1917…
(Inspired by Josef Stoitzner’s painting…)
Troubled thoughts and images of discomfort flitted
Through his mind, as he lay near the River Isonzo, resting.
The faces of Italian prisoners, distraught and contorted with fear
As they sat in filthy defeated groups haunted him and he closed his eyes,
Imagining spring…
Mindshots of leisurely rambles before the war flitted
Through his mind’s eye, as a longing welled up, testing
His resolve and fortitude. Melting snow streaked slopes sheer,
Where words of love had been spoken, reflected in sad eyes
Last spring…
Visions of distant ranges beneath a misted buff sky flitted
Through the turmoil, a peaceful landscape contrasting
Sharply with the detritus of trench warfare, grenades, gas and tears.
Exhausted and meagrely fed, the infantryman, through woeful eyes
Craved home in spring…
Memories of still wintering hillside trees rendered as bare fractures, flitted
Through the futility like scorched branches or flame-thrown skeletal death; a lasting
Nightmare. And he wondered whether the tryst they had made last year
Would be realised. And he wept from sore and grieving eyes
For the next spring…
Pete Ray…
16th February 2026…
An imaginary Austrian soldier, fighting for Germany at the Battle of Caporetto, the Twelfth Battle of Isonzo, Italy in October 1917.
The Italians suffered a terrible defeat, so maybe the above character was again able to meet his lady on the Austrian slopes as depicted by Josef Stoitzner.
I would like to think so…
An appreciation from another source...
'This stunning painting has a subtle gentleness and yet at the same time rather dramatic with an almost graphic quality. A limited palette is used to wonderful effect adding to both the drama and the subtlety.
A very sharp slope in the foreground immediately draws my attention. It depicts melting snow revealing underlying grass of an unusual yellowish brown, almost olive green shade, having been deprived of sunlight for some considerable time. A deciduous tree leans backwards as if trying to keep hold of the earth to stop it from falling downhill and is just coming into dainty fresh bud.
As the eye travels down the slope several completely bare trees are depicted against dark green conifers, such that trunk and branches appear white and then also grey against the patches of snow on the ground. It is a beautiful contrast.
Lower lying pastures are delicately painted, incorporating conifers fading from dark greens into blue greens and then into blue greys into the far distance, giving a marvellous vista of stunning countryside and distant uplands and mountains.
A subtle hint of warmth in the sky confirms that Spring is certainly here...'
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