MEMORIAL DAY 2006

That They Have Not Died In Vain

The finest tribute we can pay
Unto our hero dead today,
Is not a rose wreath, white and red,
In memory of the blood they shed;
It is to stand beside each mound,
Each couch of consecrated ground,
And pledge ourselves as warrior true
Unto the work they died to do.

Into God's valleys where they lie
At rest, beneath the open sky,
Triumphant now o'er every foe,
As living tributes let us go.
No wreath of rose or immortelles
Or spoken word or tolling bells
Will do today, unless we give
Our pledge that liberty shall live.

Our hearts must be the roses red
We place above our hero dead;
Today beside their graves we must
Renew allegiance to their trust;
Must bare our heads and humbly say
We hold the Flag as dear as they,
And stand, as once they stood to die
To keep the Stars and Stripes on high.

The finest tribute we can pay
Unto our hero dead today
Is not of speech or roses red,
But living, throbbing hearts instead,
That shall renew the pledge they sealed
With death upon the battlefield;
That freedom's flag shall bear no stain
And free men wear no tyrant's chain.

Edgar A Guest

This is from my Granmother Holmes' book copyrighted 1917
Written on the title page is "Christmas 1920 - to Mother from Hazel"
There is a small scrap of paper there with these words in Grandmother's hand "never, never throw this book away".

Can we even comprehend those who have died serving the cause of freedom since this poem was written.

I hope and pray that I will never, never forget the price that has been paid so that I can sit on my front porch, can fly (or even choose not to) the flag of this country, and breathe the air of freedom.

Let There Be Peace On Earth, and Let It Begin With Me.