Lest We Forget...

Today is a special Armistice Day as not only do we have two minutes of silence on the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month but of course this is also the eleventh year of the twenty first century. In three years we will mark a century since the start of the first world war. Isn't it sad that for all the incredible progress we have seen in those one hundred years we are still fighting across the world and remembering recent loss of life alongside the loss of the first and second world wars.

The Royal British Legion, who have been raising funds to help members of the Armed Forces and their families here in the UK for ninety years, use the Poppy as their symbol, inspired by the poem In Flanders' Fields by First World War Doctor Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. The poppies I have placed at the end of this blog entry are by Georgia O'Keeffe and are for all who are remembering their lost loved ones today.

In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields, the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place;wait 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!