elanya

So, being a jobless bum, I took the opportunity to go to the Remembrance day ceremonies this year. Being that I didn't think of it until ten and didn't commit to it until quarter past, I was basically following along the path of the parade about two blocks behind it. So I missed that, but was there for all of the ceremony, which was nice, and included all of the usual bits - no names read, which I remember them doing in Fredericton, but maybe London is too big. There were some WWII vets on parade, plus a lot that couldn't be directly involved but who'd come out from the hospitals and retirement homes. It was nice, anyway! I'm glad I went.

I usually spend a lot of time reading war poetry, but this year instead I've been looking through some of the art from the War Artists collection that the Canadian War Museum has online. Towards the end of the First World War, Lord Beaverbrook (who was from my home province, and whose own art collection formed the basis of my hometown art gallery) set up a fund to get artists to paint Canadians at war. During the Second World War, Canada actually appointed official war artists, and commissioned pieces from other artists as well. You can read a little bit about it on the museum's site, here and here.

Anyway, I thought that I would share some of the pictures here! Though you can see them from poking around at the links above as well. All the text is taken from that site as well.

( Olympic with Returned Soldiers by Arthur Lismer )

( Gas Attack, Liévin by A. Y. Jackson )

( Screened Road ‘A’ (unfinished) by A. Y. Jackson )

( Dressing Station in the Field — Arras, 1915 by Alfred Bastien )

( Private Roy, Canadian Women's Army Corps, by Molly Lamb Bobak )

( Before Zero Hour by Alex Colville )

( Ordnance depot by Harold Beament )

( Invasion Pattern, Normandy by Eric Aldwinckle )

( Shattered landscape, Cleve by Alex Colville )

There are a ton more, from quite graphic to very slice of life - this is just a small sampling. Other countries had their own similar programs, including the UK and Australia... I'm not 100% sure what the US was doing but I assume there was something.

I always feel sort of bad that there is much around (that I'm aware) for Remembrance/Veteran's Day stuff in the States. Not the way they do it back home, marching thinning ranks old men down to the cenotaph to lay wreaths and read sad lists of named while laying poppy wreaths and listening to The last Post, standing there for your minute of silence and actually thinking - what did this all mean?

When I was in Cadets, we were always in the parade, dressed in uniform. When I was in the city marching band, we would play for the procession, also. I remember attending ceremonies when I was younger too. I don't know - maybe that's all why I take it seriously. I am always sad that I don't have a poppy to wear, but I never think to get someone to send me one.

For lack of better things to do, I usually spend some time reading war poetry. Some people on LJ and facebook have posted some good stuff, but have a couple of really depressing ones from Siegfried Sassoon:

Suicide in the Trenches

I KNEW a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.

. . . .

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.


The Survivors

NO doubt they'll soon get well; the shock and strain
Have caused their stammering, disconnected talk.
Of course they're 'longing to go out again,'--
These boys with old, scared faces, learning to walk.
They'll soon forget their haunted nights; their cowed
Subjection to the ghosts of friends who died,--
Their dreams that drip with murder; and they'll be proud
Of glorious war that shatter'd all their pride...
Men who went out to battle, grim and glad;
Children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad.


So, thanks to all those who have, and do, and will put themselves on the line... For our freedom, I suppose, and the rights and freedoms of others.

I still feel bad about not having a real poppy to wear, so I'll 'wear' one on LJ for today. Thanks for the icons, meallanmouse :)

I'm also posting The Poem, because I've got nothin' else, save a minute of silence about 20 min from now. I spend so many years going to, and being in, Remembrance Day ceremonies that the day always makes me think, and it always makes me a little sad. A grateful sad, but still. There is so much to think about when it comes to war, past present, and inevitably future.

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.

~Lt. 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.

— John McCrae

Thoughts - Remembrance Day always reminds me of being in the legion parades when I was in cadets, and seeing the groups of old veterans get smaller and smaller each year. Now I expect that we've got more young veterans all the time, but I wonder just what all the day means to them. Could it really be the same?