Take the time today and remember in your own way.
Here are some of mine:
1. VIDEOS:
Pittance of Time –
English –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kX_3y3u5Uo
French – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcjnqM6KQsQ&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
Remembering by current generation: –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACCpRPzu370&feature=related
End of World War I –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8s5QYwYtuY&feature=related
Battle of Vimy Ridge–
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PShuXicOzrk&feature=related
POEMS:
My two favorite poems for this day:
John McCrae’s poem, In Flanders Field is well known. The poem, however, was not written about the fighting which occurred in Flanders Field and before the biggest battles that occurred there. Lt. Col. John McCrae, M.D., a Canadian physician, wrote it while serving at a medical station in Ypres. On 8 December 1915, the poem was published anonymously in Punch magazine. Colonel McCrae died of pneumonia on 28 January 1918, nine months prior to large-scale fighting in the Flanders area. In 1919, his verses were collected and published under the title In Flanders Field and Other Poems.
IN FLANDERS FIELD
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.
It was due to the poem “In Flanders Field” that Miss Moina Michael originated the Flanders Memorial Poppy which has raised millions of dollars for veterans and their families. Miss Michael became known to millions of World War I veterans as the “Poppy Lady” and on 9 November 1918 she wrote the poem, We Shall Keep the Faith in answer to the In Flanders Field poem.
WE SHALL KEEP THE FAITH
Oh! You who sleep in “Flanders Fields,”
Sleep sweet – to rise anew!
We caught the Torch you threw
And, holding high we keep the Faith.
With all who died.
We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led:
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.
And now the Torch and Poppy red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We’ve learned the lesson that ye taught
In Flanders Fields.
Images are powerful with the poem reading – particularly the words from those who served:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Rsy_5lelxo&feature=related
Additional Reading with slides – In Flander’s Field:
Edi Alvarez, CFP®
BS, BEd, MS