[COLT]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNAzZ-_OLfI

In Flanders fields the poppies blow (1)
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.

[yoopr]

Great post-thanks

[mapleleaf_1]

We should all take the time to remember those women & men from WW1 to today who have served and are serving now for our countries. They've sacrificed more than we'll ever realize.
In Canada they wear Poppies to commemorate Remembrance Day. Why don't they do something similar to that here in the States?? Or do they ? I've never seen anything here.

[tootie04]

here is another one....


http://www.youtube.com/v/ervaMPt4Ha0&autoplay=1

[yoopr]

Originally Posted by mapleleaf_1

We should all take the time to remember those women & men from WW1 to today who have served and are serving now for our countries. They've sacrificed more than we'll ever realize.
In Canada they wear Poppies to commemorate Remembrance Day. Why don't they do something similar to that here in the States?? Or do they ? I've never seen anything here.

Got poppy day here also-

[trux]

All these years and I had never before made the connect on why the artificial poppies on vets day.

[golfhobo]

Umm..... you guys/gals DO realize the irony here..... that POPPIES are the source of heroin, and the main reason that our soldiers are dying in Afghanistan.... right?

This poem was written by a Canadian, and posted here by canadians. Do you share our SAME Veterans' Day?

---------------

I'll gladly "catch" the standard thrown, and carry on the fight

If I could just be sure to know, that the cause I die for is RIGHT!

I honor those of yours who've died, and their FREE contribution,

In support of Executive orders giv'n, contraditive of our Constitution.

Let no one EVER question the resolve, or the manhood of a Canuck

But, rather why they they "hitch their star" to the American and his luck.

For we are cursed, and will forever be, a lightining rod of hate,

And YOU are a country that concerns itself, with matters of your State.

Brave men are ye, who serve and die, for the purpose of coalition,

And blessed are your dead, for they have known, the purpose of their mission.

..............

On this Veteran's day, let us all pray for and respect the FAMILIES of those who have paid the ulitmate price....NOT for their governments, but for their PEOPLE!

As I HOPE we have learned, about Vietnam...... it is NOT for the government's WAR that young men die.... but for the IDEALS for which they STOOD! Some died for US.... others died for a STRANGER in a strange land. And ALL died for what they thought was RIGHT..... and for the failure of their LEADERS to recognize the IMPORT of THEIR positions, and to settle disputes without resulting to WAR!

I GUESS I "get" the imagery of this poem.... but I can't see the Poppies as the comforting breeze. I see only fields of white crosses, and I hear the breeze that blows through them crying out to me to STOP the madness!

However, in deference to the author, and for those who don't KNOW..... at the time he wrote this, I'm quite SURE that he didn't know that the poppies were the source of OPIUM.... which is at the heart of the FUNDING for the terrorism that we confront and DIE for today!

Or DID he???

[COLT]

Where do the poppies come in?
Noticed as early as the Napoleonic Wars, red poppies grew on the graves of dead soldiers in the fields of northern Europe. Evidently, poppy seeds will lie underground for years and bloom if they are plowed up. In the spring of 1915, red poppies flourished covering the newly dug graves.Fields that were barren before the battles became carpets of the blood-red flowers after the fighting ended, establishing the connection between the poppy and battlefield deaths.

Just before the Great War, few poppies grew in Flanders. But the tremendous bombardments of the First World War (1914-1918) made the chalk soils there rich in lime, from the rubble. This allowed poppies to thrive.

Hobo, 11,11,11am

Most of the world recognizes November 11th 11 am as the time the Great War ended, 40 million casualties later...

Your irony about heroin and the Canadian war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, somehow involving a field surgeon's poem 90 years ago... :?: ( CAD overdose ? )

Opiates would have been a wonderful tool for a field surgeon...

[golfhobo]

CAD overdose? (could be...) but no, it was CNN overdose, I think.

Saw a show last weekend about the poppy crops and eradication efforts in Afghanistan, and how the profits are so instrumental in continuing the efforts of the Taliban and Al Quaida.

It WOULD have been an eerily beautiful sight to see the sea of red, as you described it.... and I DID enjoy the poem.

Just don't much like poppies anymore. :wink: