Americans, it seems to me, are not inclined toward memory. There is a growing trend to have no service, no memorial, other than cute and witty anecdotes about the deceased. “Keep it positive!” I have heard in a room where a dead body is lying in a box, all dressed up and waxen. But the one in the box or the ash urn deserves credit for their tears and fears, their service and their sacrifice, their bloody knuckles, sweaty brows, and empty wallets. Thank you for introducing me to the fallen and to the love and hope that fell with him. Thank you for revealing the power of memory to keep life real and eternal. -Dwight Lee Wolter
Thank you for your beautiful poem which made me cry. Two of my great uncles died at Gallipoli and it still astonishes me how their brief lives and deaths are so real to me, who was born 50 years after their passing. You capture it so well: “hold them
My father's tears, stream down my morning cheeks, like the rain falling on my gabled roof, onto my garden, flowing to the sea, the bay, where I taught his great granddaughter to swim in the cove.
David, this is the most beautiful poem, family memory... for interlocking generations. Thank you! With much deep gratitude 🙏
Poignant and heartbreaking as are all lives endured with memory and reverence for the sacred and the lost. There is some bittersweet comfort in moving the personal forward and giving them to our loved ones, the next generation. I’m especially touched by how this man doesn’t forget or push the sorrow and memory away. And instead keeps it alive and shares it with those who matter to him most. Thanks you for this moving piece.
This is quite a special poem that somehow shares Dougie’s essence with the reader. I see him teaching a young brother how to pull his arms through the water to move forward. “That’s it, good work,” he would say. What a lovely memory of him.
I always love your work- a comment suggested how Americans do an insufficient job keeping memory alive. As a psychotherapist for 45 years, what I have witnessed is to embody memory requires seeing the shadow and moving through grief. Americans are taught to sanitize memory so we then only get left with threads not full images.?
Thank you for sharing this beautiful & deeply personal poem David.
My parents were from East Yorkshire & while my Dad fought in a different regiment, I thought of all the soldiers who died in both the world wars recently, as we acknowledged ANZAC day here in New Zealand. I heard wailing from them at the ongoing senselessness of war, the wilful destruction in parts of our world that mock the statement “lest we forget”. Peace be with you 🙏
Remembrance and love and eternity - it seems you cannot have the latter without the former and you capture this so beautifully. Your words rise to the occasion and are placed so lovingly; thank you for gifting them to us 🙏
Americans, it seems to me, are not inclined toward memory. There is a growing trend to have no service, no memorial, other than cute and witty anecdotes about the deceased. “Keep it positive!” I have heard in a room where a dead body is lying in a box, all dressed up and waxen. But the one in the box or the ash urn deserves credit for their tears and fears, their service and their sacrifice, their bloody knuckles, sweaty brows, and empty wallets. Thank you for introducing me to the fallen and to the love and hope that fell with him. Thank you for revealing the power of memory to keep life real and eternal. -Dwight Lee Wolter
Thank you for your beautiful poem which made me cry. Two of my great uncles died at Gallipoli and it still astonishes me how their brief lives and deaths are so real to me, who was born 50 years after their passing. You capture it so well: “hold them
above the drowning water
with our words,
so they live again,
if not the man,
then the loved
memory,”
My father's tears, stream down my morning cheeks, like the rain falling on my gabled roof, onto my garden, flowing to the sea, the bay, where I taught his great granddaughter to swim in the cove.
David, this is the most beautiful poem, family memory... for interlocking generations. Thank you! With much deep gratitude 🙏
Poignant and heartbreaking as are all lives endured with memory and reverence for the sacred and the lost. There is some bittersweet comfort in moving the personal forward and giving them to our loved ones, the next generation. I’m especially touched by how this man doesn’t forget or push the sorrow and memory away. And instead keeps it alive and shares it with those who matter to him most. Thanks you for this moving piece.
This is quite a special poem that somehow shares Dougie’s essence with the reader. I see him teaching a young brother how to pull his arms through the water to move forward. “That’s it, good work,” he would say. What a lovely memory of him.
How I love swimming and adore willing teachers.
Thank you.
I always love your work- a comment suggested how Americans do an insufficient job keeping memory alive. As a psychotherapist for 45 years, what I have witnessed is to embody memory requires seeing the shadow and moving through grief. Americans are taught to sanitize memory so we then only get left with threads not full images.?
What a poignant expression of the love that survives loss and is passed on from generation to generation.
Beautiful tribute.
Why all wars should cease.
Keep the ink flowing to stop the blood-letting—
Go on recording
Very powerful poem. I'm so glad the family has saved him in keeping his memory alive. I loved this poem.
how as the years pass
we must always strike
boldly to save those close to us,
hold them
above the drowning water
with our words,
so they live again,
speaking to all love and all loss. So true and beautiful. grateful.
So beautiful. Brought so much up in me….
Thank you for sharing this beautiful & deeply personal poem David.
My parents were from East Yorkshire & while my Dad fought in a different regiment, I thought of all the soldiers who died in both the world wars recently, as we acknowledged ANZAC day here in New Zealand. I heard wailing from them at the ongoing senselessness of war, the wilful destruction in parts of our world that mock the statement “lest we forget”. Peace be with you 🙏
beautiful. thank you.
❤️🙏❤️🩹
Remembrance and love and eternity - it seems you cannot have the latter without the former and you capture this so beautifully. Your words rise to the occasion and are placed so lovingly; thank you for gifting them to us 🙏
Thank you for the gift of your phrases 🤍