[Irma]

Inspired by the poem, "In Flanders Field", here is  American Moina Michael's response written only a couple of days after the death of John McCrae.

  We Shall Keep the Faith

                          by Moina Michael, November 1918

                          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'll teach the lesson that ye wrought
                          In Flanders Fields.

[Clive]

Thank you for the poem, I have saved it.

[Criminal Number 18F]

Clive, thanks for the bump, and Irma, for the poem. I am a fan of Great War poetry and didn't know that one. Do you know that Dr. McRae was one of the many victims of the flu epidemic, which took the young and healthy? (Scientists think that the over-40 had immunity, and their children had been born with resistance... but the 20- to 40-year olds, the soldiers, were critically exposed. Sad).

On Veteran's Day (as we call it in the USA) or Remembrance Day (its Commonwealth name) I was in hospital, visiting a friend and former teammate who is recovering from a head wound. (Training accident).

The day before, I was at a funeral for another former teammate, a Fire Marshal (basically, fire department cop who investigates arson, and so forth) in FDNY who fell on 9/11. I suppose the lesson is, stay off my team.

Wars continue. But we have "taken up their quarrel with the foe." The fallen shall be avenged, count on it.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F