As the day of rememberance approachs
my mind wanders and ponders of times gone by.
When i walked through paddys where comrades lay
or plodded sands seeing heroes made of men.
Many flown home in boxes drapped with our flag
to families filled with grief, hearts bursting with pride.
Yet since those days i've waded through tall grasses
in long abandoned places with fallen stones.
of ancestors forgotten and kinsmen lost
no one visits, none come to pray on this day.
So how did this change from honoring our dead
to ignoring their sacrifice and lifes cost.
To these questions i have no easy answers
nor can i find any honorable cause.
Just the same slow decline in humanity
from love of family over love of self.
May be i've just gotten to old and beleive
to honor those lost is not so much to ask.
SOLDIERS LOST... IN WARS ON FOREIGN SOIL OR HERE IN THE BATTLEFIELDS OF HOME, BUT CERTAINLY, THERE COMES A TIME WHEN WE TURN OUR MEMORIES TO DUE REVERENCE OF THEIR LIVING ...AND WE THANK GOD FOR THOSE WE KNEW...AND NEVER KNEW, AMEN. THANKS FOR THE SHARE, BUDD. LOVE, BLESSINGS AND FAITH...HIS+INSPIRATIONS
A wonderful tribute and heartfelt write, Budd, I too share your somber feelings. To honor the true Hero's has been snuffed out like the flame of a candle. I would like to take this opportunity to say, "thank you for your service, Budd Nelson!"
Hi Budd
I normally do not answer written pros. but your poem deserves comment
It was spelled out in an easy read and understanding. Thank You
Keep it up Pilgrim Darryl Ehlers
Memorial Day, like so many holidays, conjured up by the powers to be, were rightly meant to honor those who had sacrificed so much in a time of great peril. But the combination of so many days/months/years of honoring this or that has greatly watered down the essential. As a result, most Americans look to the holidays as a time to escape work, briefly, and enjoy, most often, family.
Socrates was quoted by Plato as disturbed that the younger generation was going to hell (Hades). It has always been so.
Today's generation has no way to understand or gauge the horrors of war, and the sacrifices made. It's something that has never touched their lives. I think you have to live through it to have an appreciation for those who served. Personally, I hope they never have to. And like most holidays, Memorial day has lost it's meaning to commercialism.
Like you I have witnessed the decline dear Budd, but I cling onto the hope that some of us will not forget lest where we came from and who fought for our rights, thank you for sharing this tender poem of gratitude, xo
Using Calgary as a backdrop the author satirizes the self-serving nature of the public as it continues to fatten itself, not only physically, but egotistically as well.
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Love and Dreams,
Karen
Always,
Deborah
I normally do not answer written pros. but your poem deserves comment
It was spelled out in an easy read and understanding. Thank You
Keep it up Pilgrim Darryl Ehlers
Love ya!
Jane
Socrates was quoted by Plato as disturbed that the younger generation was going to hell (Hades). It has always been so.
Ron
powerful words
never stop writing
m
nam vet's wife, nam vet's widow