A small remembrance for all those lost in conflict, and a thank-you to those who serve.

 

Marching Men

Under the level winter sky
I saw a thousand Christs go by.
They sang an idle song and free
As they went up to Calvary.

Careless of eye and coarse of lip,
They marched in holiest fellowship.
That heaven might heal the world, they gave
Their earth-born dreams to deck the grave.

With souls unpurged and steadfast breath
They supped the sacrament of death.
And for each one, far off, apart,
Seven swords have rent a woman’s heart.

By Marjorie Pickthall

 

C.J. Brown, buried at Christchurch cemetery, Newport

 

The old lighthouse at Dunkirk, France

 

The red dragon at Mametz wood commemorating the 38th Welsh division, Somme, France;

the Menin Gate in Ieper, Belgium;

Poppies and trench in the Flanders region, Belgium.