We Need To Remember

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.


When I was in school, 9th grade as I recall, we learned this poem, “In Flanders Fields”. Written after the First World War, by Lt. Col John McCrae, a soldier, physician and poet. McCrae served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force at the Second Battle of Ypres in Western Belgium.

My guess is that kids these days don’t read, much less memorize, poems about wars or those who died fighting in wars. Someone would be offended or upset and a teacher would likely lose their job for recommending a poem such as “In Flanders Fields”. But these words need to be read and we need to remember.