Thought for the day - November 11, 2000

11 Nov 00 - 12:40 AM (#338462)
Subject: RE: Thought for the day - November 11, 2000
From: hesperis

The 'Essence' of Roses is the sweet-smelling perfume oil, sometimes called 'attar' or 'otto' as well. Wonder has it's own essence too. Thanks, kat!

---

11 Nov 00 - 01:43 AM (#338480)
Subject: For Remeberance Day
From: Clinton Hammond2

11:11

Ah the glorious few are all the fewer here
In the cold November air
The crowd draws silent
Their collars raised
To the edges of the square
The childrens choir sings "In Flander's Fields"
The band plays "Over There"
The old heroes still try to dress the line
As the chaplain reads the prayer

For the glorious few no longer stand so straight
As they did long years before
When they faced a hard and cruel fate
On a far and distant shore
Thier tunics faded green and blue
Poor shelter from the cold
The memories made yet raw and new
At the calling of the roll

The heads are bowed in silence now
At the tolling of the hour
The first few falling flakes of snow
Drift gentliy on the flowers
All piled and stacked agains the stones
Petals fluttering in the air
The eyes that stare down through the years
At the ones no longer there

The taste of lost and waisted years
So bitter on the tongue
White breath in clouds in the autumn cold
Frail chests with medals hung
In battle ribbons red and gold
In the pale November sun
The hands and faces grown so old
While the heart stays ever young

For the glorious few are all the fewer here
The old soldiers form the square
The wind blows hard and shakes the leaves
And stirs the thin white hair
Of these fading brave and fragile souls
As the bugler plays "Last Post"
The snow falls thick and faster still
And turns them white as ghosts

Lest We Forget...

---

11 Nov 00 - 07:28 AM (#338556)
Subject: RE: Thought for the day - November 11, 2000
From: Micca

Clinton, that was Wonderful....may I ask who wrote it..??? so moving..
and kat the smelling of the roses, and gathering the daisies... the essential process of looking at, not for...where we see what is there... not run around like headless chickens looking for the future and not seeing the present...food for thought on this weekend of Rememberance for the fallen...

---

11 Nov 00 - 07:35 AM (#338560)
Subject: RE: Thought for the day - November 11, 2000
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)

Thanks, both Clinton and Kat. Notice the now, cherish the then, be grateful in all things.

---

11 Nov 00 - 08:10 AM (#338580)
Subject: RE: Thought for the day - November 11, 2000
From: Cobble

Thanks for that Clinton and Kat. Today is Remembrance Day in the UK and also it is a year today since Brain's Dad died. He was one of the soldiers who made it home from Dunkirk (ww2). Our thoughts are with all who's lives have been wasted by war. Mrs. C.

---

11 Nov 00 - 08:12 AM (#338581)
Subject: RE: Thought for the day - November 11, 2000
From: Cobble

oops must have a copycat in the works!! sorrry. Mrs. C.

duplicate posting deleted:-)
- el joeclone -

---

11 Nov 00 - 09:10 AM (#338601)
Subject: RE: Thought for the day - November 11, 2000
From: Morticia

They shall not grow old, as we are that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them
Laurence Binyon

---

11 Nov 00 - 04:28 PM (#338766)
Subject: RE: Thought for the day - November 11, 2000
From: Gervase

Clinton, thank you for that - quite beautiful.
But what is it about November that it seems so tied up with passing and remembrance, as though it were one of the open gateways of the year? Last week I buried by grandmother (not personally, you understand - the gravediggers might have taken it amiss), and tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of my father's death. A weird time of year...
Still, even when maudlin, there are lighter moments.
In my grandmother's case it was particularly funny seeing a lifelong rather reactionary Tory being buried within 60 feet of Karl Marx, surrounded by late luminaries from the struggles for freedom in South Africa and Iraq. I don't know about turning in the grave, but I'm sure I saw the coffin wobble...
And in my father's case, I can't remember his funeral without smiling at the memory of Joe, a hard as nails Cockney with a voice like a bag of gravel, who turned up on the doorstep on the morning of the funeral in full Highland rig, complete with bagpipes, to volunteer to play a lament in front of the hearse - which he did beautifully - and then proceeded to get blissfully pissed at the wake, "Cos your old man was a nice bloke and he would have appreciated it." Which of course he would!

---

11 Nov 00 - 04:34 PM (#338771)
Subject: Thought for the day - November 11, 2000
From: Clinton Hammond2

Sorry... thought I posted that before... it's by the Big-man-daddy-o himself... Garnet Rogers...

---

11 Nov 00 - 05:48 PM (#338801)
Subject: RE: Thought for the day - November 11, 2000
From: katlaughing

Gervase, sorry to hear about your Grandmother's passing, but I'll bet she smiled at your great sense of humour and irony.

For me, it is a natural, this time of year, to think of passings etc., simply because that is what is going on all over with our Earth Mother in the Northern Hemisphere with leaves dying and dropping to the ground, smart birds flying to warmer climes, the ground growing cold and hard, unfertile at least to the eye. I also think a lot of older people just get weary of the harshness of winter, with Persephone's hanging out elsewhere *smile* and so, take their leave before it really settles in.

Clinton and Morticia thank you for those poems. Quite beautiful.

Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts. It is indeed a day for remembrance of veterans and others, too.

luvyakat

---

13 Nov 00 - 05:20 AM (#339588)
Subject: RE: Thought for the day - November 11, 2000
From: sian, west wales

Kat, as you say ... "for others too". Yesterday's broadcast service from the Cenitaph in London gave me pause for thought. Apparently, for the first time, the British Legion had added new groups to their list of those invited to participate. For the first time (according to the commentator), groups such as the Women's Land Army (Farmerettes in Canada, possibly something similar in the US?) and the Bevan Boys (I thought they were there last year but ...) were represented. And, perhaps more interesting, the Shot at Dawn Society, representing those who had been shot for treason or cowardice, sometimes for less than humane or substantial reasons.

Some years ago, in Britain, you used to be able to buy white poppies, for peace, in some places; I used to wear both a red and a white together. I haven't seen them recently, and I know that some people objected, but I believe that you can remember the dead while fervently hoping that we can find a better way.

sian

---