Today is Remembrance Day for the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the other commonwealth countries

[RV_]

Remembrance Day

 

In Canada and many commonwealth nations today is Remembrance Day, like our Memorial Day a solemn day honoring the dead from all wars and decoration of their graves.

 

For my British family, and all the friends I served with in Europe from all the commonwealth countries. And my Dad, who came here as a British citizen and served in our US Air Force.

 

We owe a debt of thanks to our allies in the terrible wars of the past. I wrote this for our American Memorial Day and a separate last paragraph for Remembrance Day and our Commonwealth allies who served with us and continue to do so. We remain comrades in arms.

 

The Commonwealth British, Canadian, South African, and ANZAC tradition includes a one-minute or two-minute silence at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month (11:00 am, 11 November), as that marks the time (in the United Kingdom) when the armistice became effective.

 

The Service of Remembrance in many Commonwealth countries generally includes the sounding of the "Last Post", followed by the period of silence, followed by the sounding of "Reveille" or sometimes just "The Rouse" (often confused for each other). The Service of Remembrance is finished by a recitation of the "Ode of Remembrance". The "Flowers of the Forest", "O Valiant Hearts", "I Vow to Thee, My Country" and "Jerusalem" are often played during the service. Services also include wreaths laid to honour the fallen, blessings, and national anthems.

 

A Day to Remember

 

They gave their all, their lives, and the futures they held dear,

They left behind a legacy of sadness and of tears.

A folded flag, "Last Post" sounds, the pride mixed in their leaving,

With heads held high, and tears in eye, the loved ones still are grieving.

Remember them.

 

Went in harms way, so young, and they never will grow older,

Leaving memories, and pictures, citations in a folder.

They left their sons, their little girls, to grow up wondering why,

Their daddy that they loved so well, went off to war to die.

Remember them.

 

For some it changed, and mother, was the casualty of war,

The arms that hugged them never would again, forevermore.

Yet all were sons and daughters, and left behind an ache,

In the hearts of those, whose turn should come, before their children's wake.

Remember them.

 

Some say that they rest in peace, and who am I to doubt it?

The higher purpose it was served, the enemy was routed.

Some came home, some never went, some only watched the news,

But they will never hold their child, or argue current views.

Remember them

 

It wasn't meant, in leaving, when they all marched off to war,

That we'd be left without them, from the cannon's deadly roar.

I'm sure that they, would rather, have been here for all of us,

But someone had to fight those wars, someone pay the cost.

Remember them

 

Upon the eleventh hour, of this eleventh day,

Of this eleventh month, the Commonwealth will pray,

And all will listen proudly as the notes of “Last Post” soars.

In tears, I will remember, those who died in all those wars.

 

©Derek Gore/RV Roadie 1997 - All Rights Reserved.

 

Edited November 12, 2022 by RV_