I cannot possibly list the array of materials that lie behind the almost three hundred poems from which these made the final cut. My intent here is to acknowledge those sources from which text has been imported directly, and to point the reader to related material that may be of interest.
Maps
The primary resource for information on British survey and mapping in World War I is the work of Peter Chasseaud, particularly Artillery’s Astrologers: A History of British Survey and Mapping on the Western Front 1914–1918 (Lewes, East Sussex, U.K.: Mapbooks, 1999) and its companion volume Topography of Armageddon: A British Trench Map Atlas of the Western Front 1914–1918, also from Mapbooks, 1991.
The map of the British advance on p. 4 appears in The Great World War: A History, Vol. VII, edited by Frank A. Mumby and published in London by The Gresham Publishing Company Ltd. in 1919 (p. 247). Used with permission of Gresham Publishing.
The portion of British Trench Map M_90_000411.jpg that appears on p. 66, covering most of the Passchendaele battlefield and annotated by a Canadian unit, is used with the kind permission of the Imperial War Museum, London.
Digital versions of trench, artillery, administrative, and other kinds of military maps, as well as aerial photos, are widely available. I have found the Western Front Association’s portfolio of DVDs most useful, primarily their two-disc set Ypres: British Mapping 1914–1918, which covers Square 28.
The geographical coordinates in the poems are identified using the trench map grid system developed by the Royal Survey Corps in 1914 and 1915 and used by the British throughout World War I. For the curious: http://www.greatwar.co.uk/research/maps/british-army-ww1-trench-maps.htm#findreference.
Poems
“War Magic” draws on A History of How the Mongols Were Repelled by Lodrö Gyaltsen (1552–1624), known simply as “Sokdokpa,” in Jacob P. Dalton, The Taming of the Demons: Violence and Liberation in Tibetan Buddhism (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2011, 133–136). The shell numbers were found in Peter H. Liddle, Passchendaele in Perspective: The Third Battle of Ypres (Barnsley, South Yorkshire, U.K.: Leo Cooper, 1997). The Battle of the Somme was known to soldiers as “the Big Push”; the Battle of the Meuse-Argonne was known as “the Big Show”; the Schlieffen Plan was the battle plan developed in 1905 by Alfred Graf von Schlieffen, chief of the German General Staff at the time, that would enable Germany to fight a two-front war. It entailed a quick strike west through Belgium and the subsequent encirclement of Paris. As modified by Helmuth von Moltke, Schlieffen’s successor, it formed the basis of the German assault against France and Belgium in August 1914.
“Taking Refuge” draws on Machik’s Complete Explanation: Clarifying the Meaning of Chöd, translated by Sarah Harding (Ithaca, New York, and Boulder, Colorado: Tsadra Foundation, Snow Lion Publications, 2003, 142–144).
“In Some Ways the Situation Is Analogous to That Facing Second Army in 1915” draws on Chasseaud, Artillery’s Astrologers (170).
“Recalling the Bla” draws on Samten G. Karmay, “The Soul and the Turquoise: A Ritual for Recalling the Bla,” The Arrow and the Spindle: Studies in History, Myths, Rituals and Beliefs in Tibet (Kathmandu: Mandala Book Point, 1997, 314).
“The Missing” (“It was a test”) is formally modeled after “Glyph” by Ann Lauterbach, Under the Sign (New York: Penguin, 2013). Lines in the poem draw from the following sources: Ypres 1914: An Official Account Published by Order of the German General Staff, translated by G. C. W. (London, 1919). Machik’s Complete Explanation, 130–131. Alberto Ríos, “Some Thoughts on the Integrity of the Single Line in Poetry.” Emily Rosko and Anton Vander Zee, Eds., A Broken Thing: Poets on the Line (Iowa City, Iowa: University of Iowa Press, 2011, 208–209).
“Indirect Fire: Shooting from the Map (from Appendix B)” draws on Notes on Employment of Artillery in Trench Fighting (Washington, D.C.: Army War College, May 1917, Sections 7 and 8); and from Chasseaud, Artillery’s Astrologers (140). Section 11.0 includes a fragment of stanza four of Laurence Binyon’s “For the Fallen.”
“General Description of the Line” draws on “Notes for Infantry Officers on Trench Warfare,” British Trench Warfare 1917–1918: A Reference Manual. General Staff, War Office. (London: The Imperial War Museum and Nashville, Tennessee: The Battery Press, 1997, 19–21).
“Bear in Mind” draws on handwritten annotations in the margins of a British trench map of the Auchy-Lens area in France, in Chasseaud’s private collection, cited in Artillery’s Astrologers (85, fn. 33). Geographical names and map coordinates have been altered to locate the poem in the Ypres Salient. This poem is dedicated to the Infantry Captain with the Cat, who taught me how to read it.
“How a Mark VII Trench Mortar Fuse Is Like Love” draws on Handbook on Trench Mortar Fuzes: Mark VII and Mark VII-E (Washington, D.C.: Ordnance Department, War Plans Division, War Department, April 1918, 10).
“Summary of Intelligence” draws on René de Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Oracles and Demons of Tibet: The Cult and Iconography of the Tibetan Protective Deities (The Hague: Mouton, 1956. Kathmandu and Varanasi: Book Faith India, 1993, 24–25).
“Additional Information” is for Elisabeth Lewis Corley.
“But You Knew This” draws from “Notes for Infantry Officers on Trench Warfare,” British Trench Warfare 1917–1918: A Reference Manual (32–33).
“What She Told Me” (“Girl, keep to these haunted places”) draws on Dampa Sangye’s prophecy delivered to Machik Lapdrön in Machik’s Complete Explanation (67, fn. 297); see also Jerome Edou, Machig Labdrön and the Foundations of Chöd (Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion Publications, 1996, 131). The poem also draws on T. S. Eliot’s “Little Gidding,” Section I, lines 45–48, in Four Quartets. Wieltje Farm Cemetery is located in the center of a cornfield in the village of Sint-Jan, Ypres. It contains burials from July–October 1917, primarily the 2nd/4th Gloucesters.
“Notes on the Interpretation of Aeroplane Photographs” (“Examine the ground . . .”) draws on Notes and Illustrations on the Interpretation of Aeroplane Photographs. SS 550 and SS 550 A (London: The War Office, March 1917. Brighton: FireStep Publishing and the National Army Museum, 2013, 5).
“Construction of Trench Systems: Explanation of Diagram #7” draws on Notes on the Construction and Equipment of Trenches (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1917, 13).
“Amulet Against Madness” draws on Nik Douglas, Tibetan Tantric Charms and Amulets (Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 1978, Charm #127); and from Tadeusz Skorupski, Tibetan Amulets (Bangkok, Thailand: White Orchid Books, 1983, 41).
“Amulet Against Ground Deities” draws on Skorupski’s Tibetan Amulets (41) and on Gas Warfare. Part II. Methods of Defense Against Gas Attacks (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Army War College, January 1918, 14–16).
“Chilled Feet” draws on 63rd (Royal Naval) Division Trench Standing Orders, Second Edition (London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1917, Appendix III, 39).
“Actual Things with Characteristics” draws on Machik’s Complete Explanation (121–122).
“The Obstacle” draws on Manual of Field Works (All Arms). 1921. (Provisional.) (London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1921, Sections 21–29, 17–58). Formally the poem owes a debt to “Thinking” by Jorie Graham, The Errancy (Hopewell, New Jersey: The Ecco Press, 1997, 40–41).
“Harm” draws on Machik’s Complete Explanation (117–118).
“Preliminary Orders” draws on an image of the orders indicated in the title, found in Liddell, Passchendaele in Perspective (64).
“Inverted Maps” draws on Chasseaud, Artillery’s Astrologers (54).
“She Explains How to Recognize the Signs of Specific Spirits and Demons When They Arise” draws on Machik’s Complete Explanation (231, 240, 242–243).
“Near Wurst Farm” draws on Machik’s Complete Explanation (101); and also Edou, Machig Labdrön and the Foundations of Chöd (163). The place called Wurst Farm by the British was located on trench map sheet 28 NE 1 Zonnebeke at D.7.d.9.9.
“Signatures” draws on Manual of Field Works (All Arms). 1921. (Provisional.) (93ff) and Terrence J. Finnegan, Shooting the Front: Allied Aerial Reconnaissance in the First World War (Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press, 2014, 182–208).
“Before the Attack on Poelcappelle” uses as background the actual meteorological forecasts issued in advance of the Battles of Broodseinde and Poelcappelle (multiple sources), and draws from the weather-makers section of de Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Oracles and Demons of Tibet (469–477).
“Obstacles” draws on Manual of Field Works (All Arms). 1921. (Provisional.) and from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, II. 3–10.
“Amulet Against Dismemberment” is drawn from Collins, Major G.R.N., “Evacuation of the Sick and Wounded: Organization of Medical Units—System of Evacuation-Treatment-Invaliding-Red Cross Protection-Voluntary Organization.” Military Organization and Administration (London: Hugh Rees Ltd., 1918. http://www.vlib.us/medical/evacn/evacn.htm).
“Sound Ranging” is a method of determining the geographical coordinates of a hostile artillery battery by using data received by microphones in multiple locations, each of which produces a bearing to the source of the sound. The poem draws on Chasseaud, Artillery’s Astrologers (96–98), and on Sir Lawrence Bragg, Major-General A. H. Dowson, and Lieut.-Colonel H. H. Hemming, Artillery Survey in the First World War (London: Field Survey Association, 1971).
“Notes on the Interpretation of Aeroplane Photographs” (“Concentrate your whole mind”) draws on Notes and Illustrations on the Interpretation of Aeroplane Photographs (5) and on Machik’s Complete Explanation (188).
“The Guts of It” draws on a conversation recorded in Captain J. C. Dunn, The War the Infantry Knew 1914–1919, first published in 1938 (London: Abacus Books, 1994, 134). Captain Dunn was a Medical Officer of the Second Battalion, His Majesty’s Twenty-Third Foot, The Royal Welsh Fusiliers, serving, for certain periods of the war, with Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon.
“In the Soft Parts of the Body” draws on Dr. Edmond Delorme, Military Surgery (London: H. K. Lewis, 1915, Chapter 10) and de
Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Oracles and Demons of Tibet (365–368).
“Recognizing the Signs of Death” draws on Namchö Mingyur Dorje, The Interpretation of Dreams in a 17th Century Tibetan Text, translated by Enrico Dell’Angelo and Robin Cooke (Arcidosso, Italy: Shang Shung Edizioni, Associazione Culturale Comunita’Dzogchen, 1996, 14).
“The Relief” draws on Dunn, The War the Infantry Knew (159) and Machik’s Complete Explanation (235).
“War Diary, 7th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Canadian Division” draws on the entries for 19–28 October 1917 in the daily unit War Diary of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry in the Canadian National Archives; also on Dalton, Taming of the Demons (130) and Machik’s Complete Explanation (8).
“Instructions for Working with the Gyalpo” draws on Machik’s Complete Explanation (233–234). The gyalpo (lit. “kings”) are spirits that bring illness, impersonate leaders, and supposedly cause insanity.
“Further Instructions” draws on Machik’s Complete Explanation (140–141).
“Telephone Reports: 2nd Canadian Divisional Artillery” draws on Telephone Reports: 2nd Canadian Artillery, Zero Hour 6:00 a.m., 6 November 1917 (London: Imperial War Museum) and Machik’s Complete Explanation (104–105, 110).
“The Missing: The Outer Signs” draws on Peter E. Hodgkinson, “Clearing the Dead” (http://www.vlib.us/wwi/resources/clearingthedead.html). After the Armistice, an organized attempt was made to clear the dead from the Flanders battlefields and to bring them to concentration cemeteries located nearby. Unidentified bodies are buried under a headstone that reads: “Here Lies a Soldier of the Great War, Known Unto God.” The almost 90,000 names of those with no known grave can be found on the Menin Gate and Tyne Cot Memorials to the Missing.
“The Missing: The Secret Signs” draws on various Tibetan sources on the rainbow body quoted in Matthew T. Kapstein, “The Strange Death of Pema the Demon Tamer” in his edited volume The Presence of Light: Divine Radiance and Religious Experience (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2004; 137, 141, 147).
“Field Survey”: Hellfire Corner, at 28 NW 4 Ypres I.10.c.9.2, was a road and rail intersection critical for British troops and supply lines. German batteries in the surrounding hills had its location preregistered and shelled it constantly. The poem stole its last two lines from Ross White.
“The Missing” (“Some became smoke . . .”) draws on various Tibetan sources in Kapstein, “The Strange Death of Pema the Demon Tamer” (137, 141, 147).
“Machik Lapdrön Tries to Explain One of the Immeasurables” draws on Machik’s Complete Explanation (148–150).
“Given a Normally Fine August” draws on sections 55–61 of Sir Douglas Haig, Dispatch #4 to the War Cabinet on the 1917 Campaigns in France and Belgium (various sources).
“Camouflage: Trenches” draws on Manual of Field Works (All Arms). 1921. (Provisional.) (100).
“The Second Law of Occlusion” draws on Notes on Map Reading for Use in Army Schools (London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1915; 16, 19, 21).
“That One Time, in December 1914” refers to the Christmas Truce, which occurred in various sections of the line in France and Belgium on December 24–25, 1914. The poem draws on Machik’s Complete Explanation (167–168).
“Our Bodies” draws on Sarah H. Jacoby, Love and Liberation: Autobiographical Writings of the Tibetan Buddhist Visionary Sera Khandro (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014; 271, 296, 311) and C. G. Jung, The Red Book: Liber Novus: A Reader’s Edition, edited by Sonu Shamdasani (New York: Philemon Foundation, W. W. Norton, 2009, 158).
“14 November 2017” draws on Dunn, The War the Infantry Knew (140–141).
“At Goudberg Copse” draws on Machik’s Complete Explanation (163, 237) and John Jackson, Private 12768: Memoir of a Tommy (Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press, 2009; 94–96, 110). Jackson served in the 79th Regiment of Foot, The Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, from 1914 until the Armistice. Jackson’s text refers to High Wood, on the Somme, where the Camerons fought in 1916. I have taken the liberty of moving the location to the Ypres Salient, choosing equally deadly Goudberg Copse, located about 1,000 yards west of Vindictive Crossroads, at 20 SE 3 Westroosebeke V.29.b.1.1.