"Lest we forget."

It's Memorial Day weekend, so I am taking a brief break from my usual Sunday evening blog post.  Instead of a new topic, I would like to leave you with one of my favorite poems, one that I learned a very long time ago.  It is called, "In Flanders Fields" and was written by a Lt. Colonel John McCrae during World War I.   Lt. Colonel McCrae was a physician in the Canadian Army and wrote the poem for the funeral of a friend and fellow soldier, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, who died in May, 1915 in the Second Battle of Ypres.  One of the poem's lines, perhaps its most famous one, references red poppies, which has led to the practice of the remembrance poppy (my wife and I purchased one from a local high school group at Kroger's last night).  It is a great poem, and I will leave it here for you today, to honor all of those who have fallen in the service of their country:

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.