My Auntie Daryth gave me this poppy to wear on Remembrance Day - I think it must be more of a Canadian thing, because I don't see too many people wearing them here - in Canada you would see oceans of them. I grew up every year reciting 'In Flanders Fields' - so here you go:
In Flanders Fields
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.
— Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918)
Pretty dramatic stuff for children - but I think the somber view was needed.
6 comments:
Jo, what a beautiful and thoughtful post. We celebrate Remembrance Sunday in the UK (closest Sunday to Nov 11th, date WWI ended). Poppies are our thing there too and lots of people will wear them - sold on the street by the Salvation Army.
At school we read the poetry of Wilfred Owen, killed just days before the end of that war.
Wearing poppies was a huge thing when I was a kid growing up in ND. I've never seen it observed anywhere else I've lived though. But then I grew up only about an hour from the Canadian border so maybe that is why?? LOL
Rivers of poppies here, and huge crowds at the cenotaph on Remembrance Day. But my kids haven't got "In Flanders Fields" memorised...yet.
I think they might be a Canadian border thing...because I saw them in AK too...never anywhere else. (Hmm..not Michigan...and Windsor is just right over the way...)
I grew up in Germany, so have no point of reference for the poppies. But those are some beautiful sentiments.
When i inherited my dad's van it had 2 poopies pinned to the underside of a passenger visor. I love seeing them there.
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