Silent barren battlefields
A cherished emblem worn
Tenderness of poppies…
In Flanders’s Field adorn
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Our gratitude awakens
Bells ring, the prayers are read
Reverent remembrance
For ‘The Glorious Dead’
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Mozart’s requiem peals now
Poignant timpani sigh
Cenotaph of Lutyen
The Ancient mourn reprise
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Potent barren battlefields
Amongst the guns echo
Emblems of dawn’s stillness
Reminiscent sunset glow
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Poem Written by Brenda L. McCartney
Photographed by John Aikins
Recently I watched this video that my younger cousins and her friends where in awe about. This was really a solemn video and quite compelling as the artist Trey Songz immerses himself in the story. The story is about a young wife being called off to the war and leaves her husband and two year old daughter behind. She is killed in the line of duty and they delivered the news to her husband. Amazing! Can you believe this is everyday reality for most soldiers and their families? There is a lot we really take for granted in this life. Whatever we decide to do today let us call to mind the fallen, those who have served in fighting wars, both living and departed. Let us also pray for all those who are currently in the line of duty or who are preparing to leave. Let us commit to memory those who have died, their sacrifice and legacy that live on in the spirit of those who continue to serve. They are missed.
Photographed by Martin Applegate
When last have you sat down and recounted the days when you thought that your parents were highly unreasonable, judicious, controlling, and rigid? Have you ever as a child remembered those one or two times (maybe more) when you contemplated the possibility you may have been adopted. It could be that you even took it a step further and expressed your hostility in words like “I hate them/you/her/him.†Don’t say that it is only me that thought these things. Now that you are a parent guardian or simply an adult you have come to realize that they were not mercenaries. Their tactics, however misconstrued, were meant to protect, love and care. As a parent looking back I see things in a different way. I now realize that all the parenting I received, with the benefit of hindsight, now all makes sense!
Spasm
Reprimands hit like a ball
Mass defense
Aversion – misapprehension
Field of translation adrift
Images of hidden strangers
Them and us
The struggle
Capricious rituals
Fresh with sour outpour
Their inexplicable beliefs
Beyond reach or comprehension
The common experiences pointless
Now!
The fanaticism of rite and right and wrong
Fluid …
Trimmed with grace plus erudition
The magnificent just war
The sacrificial symbols
Transitioned
Into components of our lives
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Poem Written by Brenda L. McCartney
© 2011 McCartney House
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