Sunday WW1 Remembered...

November is the Month of Remembrance

Now to be still and rest

by 

P H B Lyon

Now to be still and rest, while the heart remembers

All that is learned and loved in the days of long past,

To stoop and warm our hands at the fallen embers,

Glad to have come to the long way’s end at last.

Now to awake, and feel no regret at waking,

Knowing the shadowy days are white again,

To draw our curtains and watch the slow dawn breaking

Silver and grey on English field and lane.

Not to fulfil our dreams, in woods and meadows

Treading the well-loved paths – to pause and cry

‘So, even so I remember it’ – seeing the shadows

Weave on the distant hills their tapestry.

Nor to rejoice in children and join their laughter,

Tuning our hearts once more to the fairy strain,

To hear our names on voices we love, and after

Turn with a smile to sleep and our dream again.

Then – with a new-born strength, the sweet rest over,

Gladly to follow the great white road once more,

To work with a song on our lips and the heart of a lover,

Building a city of peace on the wastes of war.

~***~