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Memoria Day Poem by: Rod McKuen
www.rodmckuen.com
Go to his site and check it out. You can also buy his books there. He is my favorite poet!


PARADING THE COLORS

Red should not always stand for bloodnot even that spilled by our fathers
and our sonsin the great parade of wars with numbers
one.
two.
three?
Red is a sunset color
a painted desert dye
the color of the Arizona plains
and at certain times, the West Virginia sky.
Pride and purity may use the color white.
But snow-topped Colorado Mountains,
ice across the Great Lakes in December
and Alaska every day of wintertime
claimed the color first.
Not to mention that long strand of sandy Utah
and every Massachusetts / California beach.
So many uniform are blue
that we forgot the Truckee and the Mississippi
blue sky ocean to ocean,
blue ocean sky to sky.
Atlantic and Pacific have always been not green
but blue.
I know my history lessons,
I learned them well
that this nation to become a nation
ran forward into battle shouting freedom!
And often bore the tattered tri-color
home againfor men to mend
and start another battle new.
I am aware
that flagmakers make new fortunes
every Veterans / Decoration Day,
and broken bodies bathed in canvas
and the stars and stripes
have slid off ten thousand ships
maybe twenty thousand more,
to rest upon the bottom of the mother sea.
Excelsior at Iwo Jima.
Bully at Bull Run.
A step for man and mankind
murmured on the moon
Peace with honor... somewhere.
Mothers of dead sons have pride.
Me too.
But I would rather paint my colors
on a bright balloon -children then would wave at me
and chase my shadow.
Old men who sit at tables making wars
Do not do so in my name again.
It has taken me two hundred years
to come down to this place.
I have earned the right to see red, white, and blue
not on a battered standard borne in battle
but on my brother’s face.
I love my flag.
To me it stands for love
kindness even to my enemy
and most of all, for brotherhood.

 
Travelin' Soldier
By: Dixie Chicks

Two days past eighteen
He was waitin' for the bus in his army greens
Sat down in a booth at a café there
Gave his order to the girl with a bow in her hair
He's a little shy so she gave him a smile
So he said would you mind sittin' down for a while
And talkin' to me I'm feelin' a little low
She said I'm off in an hour and I know where we can go

So they went down and they sat on the pier
He said I bet you got a boyfriend but I don't care
I've got no one to send a letter to
Would you mind if I sent one back here to you?

I cried
Never gonna hold the hand of another guy
Too young for him they told her
Waitin' for the love of the travelin' soldier
Our love will never end
Waitin' for the soldier to come back again
Never more to be alone
When the letter says a soldier's coming home

So the letters came
From an army camp
In California then Vietnam
And he told his heart
It might be love
And all of the things he was so scared of
Said when it's gettin kinda rough over here
I think about that day sittin' down at the pier
And close my eyes and see your pretty smile
Now don't worry but I won't be able to write for a while

I cried
Never gonna hold the hand of another guy
Too young for him they told her
Waitin' for the love of the travelin' soldier
Our love will never end
Waitin' for the soldier to come back again
Never more to be alone
When the letter says a soldier's coming home

One Friday night at a football game
The Lord's Prayer said and the anthem sang
A man said folks would you bow your heads
For the list of local Vietnam dead
Cryin' all alone under the stands
Was the piccolo player in the marching band
And one name read and no one really cared
But a pretty little girl with a bow in her hair

I cried
Never gonna hold the hand of another guy
Too young for him they told her
Waitin' for the love of the travelin' soldier
Our love will never end
Waitin' for the soldier to come back again
Never more to be alone
When the letter says a soldier's coming home


* Memorial Day is coming up and I think this song says a lot about the spirit of the young men & women who were shipped off to Vietnam and never came home alive. Some came home and were tramatized by the experience of war in a very diferent place with rice patties and proverty. We should honor and support these heroes. We should also honor and pray for the loved ones they left behind. It is sad that the soldiers who came home were dishonored by protests. They were called and they serviced.
God bless all the fallen and walking travelin soldiers...

 
Mustard Seed
By: Nancy G. Brundrett

This life is a long journey my friend
I can always see it coming around the bend
Can't always be the easy way
Best things in life a sacrifice you must pay
Isn't it good for us to know?
His spirit lives within the hungry soul
There to help guide us and always stay
To save us and heal us everyday
I know that joy comes in the morning
I always love to read those words
Dark is the hour right before the dawn
Here comes the light and our troubles are gone
Faith can be a hard road sometimes
Easy for everyone, but ourselves
But it's the human need
That only God can feed
And in my hand is a mustard seed
That's all I need, that's all I need
Nothing shall be impossible
The power within to move mountains
Faith as a grain of mustard seed
That’s all I need
A mustard seed

www.nancy-heartmusic.com

 
NOTABLE MIRACLE

By: Nancy G. Brundrett

Here you come to me walking on the water
And you fill me up with your love
If it wasn't for your light
I'd be swallowed by the night
And all my soul can say is
All is well
I'm your notable miracle
Filled with unspeakable joy

It's my desire for you to take me higher
Up above the trees, flying in the sky
Piercing through the clouds
Touching every sunrise
And all my soul can say is
All is well
I'm your notable miracle
Filled with unspeakable joy

You ascended into the heavens
Promising the victory over death and the grave
Even though I wasn't there and didn't see
You filled my heart with the fullness of your grace
And all my soul can say is
All is well
I'm your notable miracle
Filled with unspeakable joy

Unspeakable joy pouring down from above
Your touch gives me peace like a morning dove
Your favor raining down on my soul
I'm your notable miracle

www.nancy-heartmusic.com

 
Speak to Us of Children
From the book the Prophet
By: Kahlil Gibran
1923

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said,
Speak to us of Children.
And he said:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yeaterday.
You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of
the infinite, and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so
He loves also the bow that is stable.

 
The Prophet
By: Kahlil Gibran
1923

"Then Almitra spoke again and said, And what of Marriage, master?
And he answered saying:
You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grown not in
each other's shadow."