Lest We Forget

[SunflowerP]

We have a news thread for this, but I think a thread here is also in order, including some things not in that thread.

This can, perhaps, be considered a mini remembrance service/ritual, forum-style. Feel free to lay poppies (individual or wreaths) in the thread.

Sunflower







In Flanders Fields (John McRae)

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
       Between the crosses, row on row,
    That mark our place; and in the sky
    The larks, still bravely singing, fly
 Scarce heard amid the guns below.

 We are the Dead. Short days ago
 We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
    Loved and were loved, and now we lie
          In Flanders fields.

 Take up our quarrel with the foe:
 To you from failing hands we throw
    The torch; be yours to hold it high.
    If ye break faith with us who die
 We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
          In Flanders fields.
-------------------------------------------------
Act of Remembrance (excerpt from Laurence Binyon's 'For the Fallen')

They shall grow not old,
as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them,
nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun
and in the morning
We will remember them.

We will remember them.

[SerpentineSorcerer]

We have a news thread for this, but I think a thread here is also in order, including some things not in that thread.

This can, perhaps, be considered a mini remembrance service/ritual, forum-style. Feel free to lay poppies (individual or wreaths) in the thread.

We will remember them.

 
"The Green Fields Of France"
(originally by Eric Bogle)

Oh how do you do, young Willy McBride
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside
And rest for a while in the warm summer sun
I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly done
And I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen
When you joined the great fallen in 1916
Well I hope you died quick
And I hope you died clean
Or Willy McBride, was is it slow and obscene

Did they beat the drums slowly
Did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the last post and chorus
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some loyal heart is your memory enshrined
And though you died back in 1916
To that loyal heart you're forever nineteen
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Forever enshrined behind some old glass pane
In an old photograph torn, tattered, and stained
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame

Did they beat the drums slowly
Did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the last post and chorus
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest

The sun shining down on these green fields of France
The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance
The trenches have vanished long under the plow
No gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now
But here in this graveyard that's still no mans land
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
And a whole generation were butchered and damned

Did they beat the drums slowly
Did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the last post and chorus
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest

And I can't help but wonder oh Willy McBride
Do all those who lie here know why they died
Did you really believe them when they told you the cause
Did you really believe that this war would end wars
Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
The killing and dying it was all done in vain
Oh Willy McBride it all happened again
And again, and again, and again, and again

Did they beat the drums slowly
Did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the last post and chorus
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest

[savveir]

We have a news thread for this, but I think a thread here is also in order, including some things not in that thread.

....

We will remember them.[/candle]

We will remember them.