REMEMBRANCE SERVICE – ROYAL ALBERT HALL

by Helena Sheridan

And now, that sacred silence falls,
When blood red poppies rain,
This grieving heart once more recalls,
The anguish and the pain.

But where amid this shower lies,
That solitary bloom,
For which this lonely widow cries,
Beside the martyr’s tomb?

Here? In this bright vermilion storm,
This clustered crimson mass,
That renders neither name nor form,
But silently slips passed?

And still the gentle petals come,
To mark the bitter cost,
For each a father, daughter, son,
But where the love I’ve lost?

How in this splendid pageantry,
This regimental plan,
Can I remember, quietly,
My ordinary man?