Poetry
Our Heroes
by Fl/Lt. Jack Skingley
Yonder star alive with merry light
Appears from Earth to be inanimate,
Yet think you not that in that distant sphere,
Live people much the same as here.
Do they know pain as we who suffer now,
Are their aims small as ours, which show
No wish to rise to greater heights
As Time strides on and the Recorder writes.
Look there!
The sun has thrust his rays,
To cap rock's majesty in growing blaze
While down below to mortal life it brings
A stealing glow - and things,
Which in the shadow of the eve
Gained magnitude, now die to leave
The thought that yester took but little joy from Life
When man can face the growing strife
Now prevalent in this troubled world
By honouring a Flag unfurl'd.
Those soldiers who paraded in the Past
Fought war and left Death's aftermath,
Their ghosts now stand with Youth to guide their feet,
To make it easier when the drummers beat
And Last Post sends its poignant prayer
Oh God, receive these Heroes in Thy Care
Oh God, I pray that it may be
That when our nation's history
Stands recorded in Truth's clear light
No blot appears to mar the sight
Of noble sacrifice by those who tried,
With Hope and Loyality allied,
To stop a Monster's greed for power
And put an end to War for ever
Their loyality unites in tempered band
True friendship proffered with unstinting hand.
If theirs to die the clasp is strong
The greater sacrifice, the better bond.
In vision clear as to their destiny
These men will fight for Right unceasingly,
So charge your cups
And stand in prideful pose
To drink a toast to Victory and to Those
Who counted not the price for Conquest paid
Unfaltered in their purpose firmly made,
To rid the World of horror and of vice,
They gave their lives, what Greater Sacrifice!
I give you 'Our Heroes'
Shortly after composing this Poem Fl/Lt Jack Skingley gave his life.
The Young Dead Soldiers
by Archibald MacLeish
The young dead soldiers do not speak.
Nevertheless they are heard in the still houses.
(Who has not heard them?)....They say,
We were young. We have died. Remember us.
They say,
We have done what we could
But until it is finished it is not done.
They say,
We have given our lives
But until it is finished no one can know what our lives gave.
They say,
Our deaths are not ours,
They are yours,
They will mean what you make them.
They say,
Whether our lives, and our deaths were for peace and a new hope
Or for nothing
We cannot say.
It is you who must say this.
They say,
We leave you our deaths,
Give them their meaning.
Flanders Fields
by veteran Harvey L. Murray
Hamilton, Ontario Unforgettable
"Missing in action - presumed dead"
was the wartime message families dread.
Though far away, we seemed to feel
your pain, from burst of jagged steel.
The reason's clear, as time goes by,
for us to live - you had to die.
You lost your life and we lost you
what more could one be asked to do.
To those on board a sunken ship
to those who flew their final trip
to those trapped in a burning tank
we need to remember - and to thank
