Standing in awe at the Tower of London

Today I was touched by history. For weeks, Charlie and I have been reading about the poppies that are being placed around the Tower of London. The installation, called “Blood Swept Lands And Seas Of Red,” is made up of 888,246 poppies – one for each of the British and Commonwealth soldiers killed in World War I. 

I have to admit that reading "In Flanders Fields" meant little or nothing to me in high school; however, the poem took on new meaning today as I looked out over a sea of poppies and reflected on what they stood for.

"In Flanders Fields" is a war poem written during the First World War by Canadian physician Lieutenant Colonel 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.


Inspired by "In Flanders Fields", American professor Moina Michael resolved at the war's conclusion in 1918 to wear a red poppy year-round to honor the soldiers who died in the war and later penned this poem.

We Shall Keep the Faith

Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet - to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith With All who died.

We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead In Flanders Fields.

And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought In Flanders Fields.