Remembrance Day

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.

John McCrae (1872–1918)

Australia is covered with war memorials, most in remembrance of the First World War and the Second World War. In a Burwood park next to one of the main shopping centres near my home is a war memorial that was opened on Remembrance Day 1922. That is 91 years ago. This memorial now remembers 9 wars up to Vietnam.

Even on my own street, a few minutes walk from my house, is a row of olive trees that is actually a war memorial to the Rats of Tobruk. Most people would drive past these trees without realising what they signify.

I remember.

Comments

[thygocanberra]

thanks Paul for this post.

[Uxor Petri]

We will remember them.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.