Today has special meaning for me as for many people - I always prefer to remember on the real Armistice Day rather than Remembrance Sunday. In the past, my thoughts have mostly turned to my maternal grandfather who was an ambulance driver and stretcher bearer in WWI in Flanders, but this year, the present is very much in my mind, as war takes its toll on today's generation rather than past generations. How sad that, so many years later, we are still mourning the loss of British life in foreign lands.
In Flanders Fields
written by John McCrae in May 1915
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.
