Remember, Honour, Try For Peace

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This is my contribution to the Armistice Day thoughts and feelings. I hope the poem speaks for my grateful thanks for this who serve and a heartfelt wish for peace among nations and all peoples.

God Knows Who
Poppies still grow
trees yet stand
guardians over a war torn land

Spirits long dead
in the ground
corn grows peacefully all around

fileds have seen
so much distress
we’ll leave them to what they do best

let hedgerows run
wild with rose
as we sit and remember those

for whom there will
be no more treat
of apple and blackberry pie to eat

they fought our cause
commend them now
think of white crosses row on row

many have names
some do not
God knows who is in every plot

it matters today
keep in mind
those whom war left far behind

let’s live in peace
find a way
to honour, remember, smile and say

heartfelt thanks to
those who fall
for our today they give their all.
DennyBradbury©2014

More Wonderful Wordsworth Writing on the World

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The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gather’d now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. -Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

He was a genius wasn’t he!

Very best wishes/Denny Bradbury

William Wordsworth on the state of ‘things’ in 1802

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O Friend, I know not which way I must look
For comfort, being as I am opprest,
To think that now our life is only drest
For show; mean handy-work of craftsman,cook,
Or groom!- We must run glittering like a brook
In the open sunshine, or we are unblest:
The wealthiest man among us is the best:
No grandeur now in nature or in book
Delights us. Rapine, avarice, expense,
This is idolatry; and these we adore;
Plain living and high thinking are no more:
The homely beauty of the good old cause
Is gone; our peace, our fearful innocence,
And pure religion breathing household laws.

Whatever drove Wordsworth to such despair at his times one could feel the same about society today. So much changes and yet so much stays the same.

With every good wish/Denny Bradbury

Musical Poetry

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Wonderful words from the 17th century poet, William Strode:

In Commendation of Music

When whispering strains do softly steal
With creeping passion through the heart
And when with every touch we feel
Our pulses beat and bear a part;
When threads can make
A heartstring shake
Philosophy
Can scarce deny
The soul consists of harmony.

The poem goes on and among my favourite lines are:

O lull me, lull me, charming air,
My senses rock with wonder sweet;
Like snow on wool thy fallings are,
soft like a spirit’s, are thy feet:

It is a wonderfully evocative poem and encapsulates the magic and deeply sensory nature of our relationship with music. A good poem can also have this effect.

Very best wishes, Denny Bradbury

Shadows from those past

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It was one of my Mother’s favourite pieces of poetry. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote so much of great meaning but this extract gave my Mother purpose as she grew older. Must have been in the family as her Mother kept a day book during the First World War that had snippets from Longfellow scattered liberally throughout.

“What then? Shall we sit idly down and say
The night hath come it is no longer day?
Something remains for us to do, or dare;
Even the oldest tree some fruit may bear;
For age is opportunity no less than youth itself,
Though in another dress
And as the twilight fades away
The sky is filled with stars invisible by day.”

very best wishes, Denny Bradbury