Remembrance Day

LEST WE FORGET

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

John McCrae – Canadian 1872 -1918 Poet, Physician, Author, Artist and Soldier during World War I, ...

The First World War poem, written in 1915 is widely associated with Remembrance Day due to the way in which it links the horror of the battlefields with the blood-red flowers that bloomed after the war finished.

After the conflict came to an end in 1918 the poem's popularity helped to encourage the wearing of poppies as an act of symbolic remembrance, not only for The Great War but for respect and remembrance of the fallen in all wars.  We wear our Poppies with pride and at 11am today our thoughts were particularly centred on the Father Mr T never knew, as he was killed in Florence in 1944.  Mr T was only 2.   My Father was a serving officer on the Queen Elizabeth and I didn’t meet him until I was 2 when he was lucky enough to be able to come home.

And whilst we're remembering:

ANTHEM

The birds they sang at the break of day,  Start again I heard them say
 Don't dwell on what has passed away or what is yet to be.
 Ah the wars they will be fought again.

 The holy dove She will be caught again, bought and sold and bought again,
The dove is never free.

 Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

We asked for signs the signs were sent: the birth betrayed the marriage spent
Yeah the widowhood of every government -- signs for all to see. ………..

Leonard Cohen - Canadian 1934 – 2016 Singer, Songwriter, Poet and Novelist

Who died today at the age of 82.  The man with the multifaceted personality and the gravelly voice
RIP