for this postcard from Ypres . . .
. . . and to my brother Bruce for telling me about this touching video of Linus (from the Peanuts gang)
reciting the poem (slightly longer version):
Monday, November 12, 2012
Flanders Fields ~
What Have We Learned?
for this postcard from Ypres . . .
. . . and to my brother Bruce for telling me about this touching video of Linus (from the Peanuts gang)
reciting the poem (slightly longer version):
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Thanks to Brigit Farley for sharing this poem:
ReplyDeleteMagpies in Picardy
by T. P. Cameron Wilson
"TIPCUCA"
IN The Westminster Gazette
THE. magpies in Picardy
Are more than I can tell.
They flicker down the dusty roads
And cast a magic spell
On the men who march through Picardy,
Through Picardy to hell.
(The blackbird flies with panic,
The swallow goes like light,
The finches move like ladies,
The owl floats by at night;
But the great and flashing magpie
He flies as artists might.)
A magpie in Picardy
Told me secret things--
Of the music in white feathers,
And the sunlight that sings
And dances in deep shadows--
He told me with his wings.
(The hawk is cruel and rigid,
He watches from a height;
The rook is slow and somber,
The robin loves to fight;
But the great and flashing magpie
He flies as lovers might.)
He told me that in Picardy,
An age ago or more,
While all his fathers still were eggs,
These dusty highways bore
Brown, singing soldiers marching out
Through Picardy to war.
He said that still through chaos
Works on the ancient plan,
And that two things have altered not
Since first the world began-
The beauty of the wild green earth
And the bravery of man.
(For the sparrow flies unthinking
And quarrels in his flight.
The heron trails his legs behind,
The lark goes out of sight;
But the great and flashing magpie
He flies as poets might.)
http://beck.library.emory.edu/greatwar/poetry/eaton/Eaton111/
http://war-poets.blogspot.com/2010/08/t-p-cameron-wilson-magpies-in-picardy.html