I have Landed

As the 70th anniversary of D-Day was commemorated yesterday, I penned this poem (in rondel form) looking at in the stanzas, the past, the present day today, and the past once more.

The past is always with us, and we forget it at our peril. This was never seen more so than with the memories of those veterans who returned to those beaches yesterday. They were not mostly the trained elite fighting forces of a professional army. They were trained, but at the end of the day, most of them were ordinary people like you or me, who showed how ordinary people can be capable of acts of extraordinary courage and heroism.

The Colonel referred to in the poem is of course Lt-Col. Robert Lee Wolverton, who notable prayed  "We do not ask favors or indulgence but ask that, if You will, use us as Your instrument for the right and an aid in returning peace to the world." He died on D-Day.

I have Landed

I have landed on the Normandy beaches
The waves crash like mortars fired
So many deaths, young life expired
Against German lines, in making breaches

And now we come, and hear the speeches
And I have aged, and I am tired
I have landed on the Normandy beaches
The waves crash like mortars fired

God pray for us, the Colonel preaches
A better world, with hope inspired
And we did our duty, as required
Shells are fired, and land with screeches
I have landed on the Normandy beaches