Daily poem

No one can pass you by without a second glance.

Cornfields blood-red stand, painted by your scarlet hue;

On Flanders Field, soldiers' blood, stained the ground too.

Scarlet Poppy, blowing gently in the breeze,

Fragile, papery flower, your beauty to us lend, our heartache to ease.

Lest we forget the debt we owe to those who for us died,

And sleep now in some foreign soil, their memory glorified.

Scarlet Poppy, once a year, a nation stills its noise,

And as the silence deepens, all remember with one voice.

The soldiers who did not return and who are now lost from our eyes,

The wind across the ocean, gently carries their last sighs.

Slender, scarlet poppy, so vibrant and alive,

Always be our emblem, for our soldiers brave who died.

And wherever they lay their heads to rest

Please let them know that we loved them best. By Mrs Kathleen Hinks

Oakley Park, Heaton

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.