War and Remembrance

A poem that seeks to honour those who have fought and died for us, whilst at the same time questioning whether they should have been asked to do so.

War and Remembrance

 

            We wear the crimson poppy

            With mingled pride and shame

            We honour those whose valiance

            For us burned like a flame,

            Who died to bring us freedom

            From terror and from pain "

            And yet our generation

            Still plays that deadly game;

They died that we might live, in peace,

And from our conflict find release.

 

            Every one a father,

            A brother or a son,

            A husband or a sweetheart,

            Forced to fire a gun

            At someone else’s sweetheart,

            At someone else’s son,

            At someone else whose young life

            Had only just begun;

Another time " another place "

It might have been a different case.

 

            For every miscellaneous life

            Upon this crowded earth,

            Every aged wisdom,

            And every guiltless birth,

            Is equal in its value

            And equal in its worth:

            They know the pain of sadness,

            They know the joy of mirth;

Each cooled by rain, each warmed by sun,

And Jesus died for every one.

 

            So let us wear the poppy

            To remember blood once spilled;

            And lives that never blossomed,

            Potential unfulfilled;

            They gave their future so that ours

            Would not by fear be chilled,

            And leave to us a legacy

            That never shall be killed "

Their message rings from age to age:

Let Peace kill Hate, and Love assuage.

 

 

© Ruth Fanshaw 2011

Author's Note

The capital letters for abstract nouns are deliberate poetic license! :D