Monday, May 31, 2010

Remembering



The young dead soldiers do not speak.
Nevertheless, they are heard in the still houses:
who has not heard them?
They have a silence that speaks for them at night
and when the clock counts.
They say: We were young. We have died.
Remember us.
They say: We have done what we could
but until it is finished it is not done.
They say: We have given our lives but until it is finished
no one can know what our lives gave.
They say: Our deaths are not ours: they are yours,
they will mean what you make them.
They say: Whether our lives and our deaths were for
peace and a new hope or for nothing we cannot say,
it is you who must say this.
We leave you our deaths. Give them their meaning.
We were young, they say. We have died; remember us.

by Archibald MacLeish,
1892-1982, American Poet



**************************************************
Remembering those in our military who fell in battle and for their friends and families who still keep them alive in memory.
Photo found here.

3 comments:

Rebecca Ramsey said...

Thanks, Cathy. What a moving photo.
It is good to remember.

home based businesses said...

Their own souls rose and cried
Alarum when they heard the sudden wail
Of stricken freedom and along the gale
Saw her eternal banner quivering wide.
~John LeGay Brereton

Gina said...

A very touching post, thank you.