Please take a moment to remember those that gave their lives for freedom. And say a prayer for those that continue that struggle today.
In Flanders Fields
written in 1915 by John McCrae
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.
Flanders, in north-west Belgium, was the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of the World War I. One of the few things said to have survived the bloodshed was the poppy. Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrea, a Canadian doctor serving on the battlefield, wrote this poem after treating the battle wounded and burying the dead.