A CHARD war veteran and poet has shared his thoughts on remembrance, as well as one of his poems.

Clive Sanders, who is also the town’s mace bearer, joined the army in 1965 and served until his retirement in 2012.

He said: ““I continued writing light hearted poems through my army career, but it was only when I retired in 2012 that my poems took on a more serious mood.

“I had served two operational tours in Bosnia during the mid-1990s and some of the things I witnessed there had a lasting influence on my poems.

“But in 2013 I wrote a poem, Unless You’ve Been A Soldier. This poem took me only about 10 minutes to write, but after I had written it I had to go for a walk as it affected me so much.”

The poem has since been viewed more than three million times online, and used in remembrance services across the world.

He added: “I am personally very moved that every passing year the number of people who attend the Remembrance Day Parade and Service in Chard appears to be growing substantially.”

Unless you’ve been a soldier,

You just won’t understand,

The things that we have seen and done,

In the service of our land.

We were trained to live in combat,

And to deal with dreadful sights,

That shouldn’t be seen by anyone,

And keep you awake at nights.

We don’t discuss the wounds we have,

To the body or our mind,

We just put our hurts behind us,

And turn our memories blind.

We are proud we served our country,

But remember that we lost,

For the freedom that you have today,

They paid the awful cost.