Please take time tomorrow to pause and give thanks to the soldiers, airmen, sailors, marines, and coast guardsmen who have died in the defense of the United States of America. Some get Memorial Day and Veterans Day sort of intertwined but tomorrow is only for those who paid the ultimate price.
In honor of that I want to give you two poems. The first, I'm sure, nearly each of you have read before. The second I recently found and was surprised by the author whom I know had written some poems but have read very, very few of them. These are in honor of those who died:
IT'S THE SOLDIER by Father Dennis Edward O'Brien USMC
It's the soldier, not the reporter who has given us freedom of the press.
It's the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of the speech.
It's the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the right to demonstrate.
It's the soldier, not the lawyer who has given us the right to a fair trial.
I'ts the soldier who salutes the flag, serves under the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who has given the protestor the right to burn the flag.
A SOLDIER'S BURIAL....By GENERAL George S. Patton
Not midst the changing of the Requiem hymn,
Nor with the solemn ritual of prayer,
Neath the misty shadows foe oriel glass,
And dreamy perfume of the incensed air,
Was he interred,
But the subtle stillness after fight,
And the half light between the hight and the day,
We dragged his body all besmeared with mud,
And dropped if, clod-like, back into the clay,
Yet who shall say that he was not content,
Or missed the prayers, or drone of chanting choir,
He who has heard all day the Battle Hymn,
Sung on all sides by thousands threats of fire,
What painted glass can lovelier shadows cast,
Than those evening skies shall ever shed,
While, mingled with their light, Red Battle Sun,
Completes in magic colors o'er the dead
The flag for they died.
Dee
