![]() November is poppy month,
the time of the year when by the wearing of a
simple emblem, a red poppy, we salute the memory of those who
sacrificed
their health, their strength, even their lives, that we might live in a
free country.
11th November 1919 The tram cars glided into stillness, motors ceased to cough and fume, and stopped dead, and the mighty-limbed dray horses hunched back upon their loads and stopped also, seeming to do it of their own volition. Someone took off his hat, and with a nervous hesitancy the rest of the men bowed their heads also. Here and there an old soldier could be detected slipping unconsciously into the posture of 'attention'. An elderly woman, not far away, wiped her eyes, and the man beside her looked white and stern. Everyone stood very still ... The hush deepened. It had spread over the whole city and become so pronounced as to impress one with a sense of audibility. It was a silence which was almost pain ... And the spirit of memory brooded over it all. ~~From the Manchester Guardian, 12th November 1919.~~
LET US PRAY - - Loving Father - help us in our memories - ease us in the pain of them, without causing us to forget. - Lord God - we remember the costs, remind us too of the victory - of what was won by our comrades and by fellow countrymen; - And finally Lord God - be with all those who are facing war this day - our men and woman at sea and on land and in the air in the mid-east; and be with the rulers of this world and all the world's citizens, that we may learn and live the way of peace with justice, we ask it Jesus' name - AMEN
At the second battle of Ypres in 1915, when in charge
of a small first-aid post, he wrote in pencil on a page torn from his
despatch book:
IN FLANDERS FIELDS. In Flanders field the poppies blow We are the Dead. Short days ago Take up our quarrel with the foe: ~~By Major John McCrae, May 1915.~~ His volume of poetry, In Flanders Fields and Other Poems, was published in 1919. An American, Miss Moina Belle Michael, read In
Flanders
Fields and wrote a reply entitled -
WE SHALL KEEP THE FAITH. Oh! You who sleep in Flanders fields, It seems to signal to the skies And now the torch and poppy red Another reply to "IN FLANDERS FIELDS". Oh! sleep in peace where poppies grow; Oh! rest in peace, we quickly go As in rumbling sound, to and fro, And still the poppies gently blow, ~~By John Mitchell.~~
Yet another reply to "IN FLANDERS FIELDS". In Flanders Fields the cannons boom, Sleep on, ye brave! The shrieking shell, ~~By J.A. Armstrong.~~
BRITAIN'S ANSWER. Rest ye in peace, ye Flanders dead. Fear not that ye have died for naught.
"Please wear a poppy," the lady said A boy came whistling down the street, The lady smiled in her wistful way "I had a boy about your size, "He was fine and strong, with a boyish smile, "But the war went on and he had to stay, "Till at last, at last, the war was won - A tear rolled down each faded check; And so when we see a poppy worn, ~~By Don Crawford.~~
Remembrance Day is here again, The poppies that you see people wear, To all the soldiers who died saving our country. ~~By Patti Joyce.~~ No more shall brother kill his brother no more shall white blood spill in vain our racial fratricide is over an end to our race's rage and pain through many wars our best have fell whilst back at home the devil spawned a breed that lives to treason tell and hope their new world vision dawns but western man must stand together and fight as one - a new shield wall and brother fights beside his brother 'til a braver world awaits us all - Eddy Morrison 2007 ![]() ![]()
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