[Perseverando]

In Flanders Fields

John McCrae, 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.

[Fish Speaker]

I Have a Rendezvous with Death
Alan Seeger - 1888-1916

I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
When Spring comes back with rustling shade
And apple-blossoms fill the air—
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days and fair.

It may be he shall take my hand
And lead me into his dark land
And close my eyes and quench my breath—
It may be I shall pass him still.
I have a rendezvous with Death
On some scarred slope of battered hill,
When Spring comes round again this year
And the first meadow-flowers appear.

God knows ’twere better to be deep
Pillowed in silk and scented down,
Where love throbs out in blissful sleep,
Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,
Where hushed awakenings are dear...
But I’ve a rendezvous with Death
At midnight in some flaming town,
When Spring trips north again this year,
And I to my pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous.

[SES1066]

In Britain, they still make it a point to wear a (artificial) poppy on Remembrance Sunday, the Sunday nearest to 11 November. The day, if not the poppy wearing, is commemorated in much of the British Commonwealth as well. We here in the States split our commemoration between Memorial Day and Veterans Day, there in Britain etc. it is all a single day!

[DuncanWaring]

In 2014, one ceramic poppy was planted in the moat surrounding the Tower of London for each soldier of the British Empire killed in The Great War.

880,000+ of them.