Desideratum

--Arend Van Dam

It's a weight, a wonder that is wise
I am here, you are there
Love is our cross to bear
--Love is Our Cross to Bear,
John Gorka

Dark waters rise and thunders pound
the wheels of war are going round
and all the walls are crumbling
Shelter me lord underneath your wings
--Shelter Me, Buddy Miller
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In honor of National Poetry Month, a poem by Polish poet Julia Hartwig (b. 1921):

Yet We Desire It above All

Freedom does not mean happiness right away
the free world hides more traps than tyranny
mastiffs let loose from chains passions exceeding the horizon
steps entangled in the ropes of old bonds
that try to pull tight again

Freedom both for scoundrels and those
who sacrificed themselves for it
freedom for those who feel as pure as a diamond
and want to cut deeply surrendering passionately
to a new slavery—of hatred
from which the earth cracks like under dynamite
changing the course of rivers

[cross-posted @ milpub]

D-Day

For some of them ... tomorrow

Is a day ... they'll never see

I can't promise we'll all make it lads

But I'll do my best ... you'll see

--The Coxswain, Tony Chapman

"Never again," was the heartfelt motto,

"Lest We Forget," became the Veteran's Day theme,

But the big guns did not long stay silent

And Peace is still a will o' wisp dream

--Lest We Forget, Mike Puhallo

________________

Ranger recognizes the D-Day Normany Landings, June 6, 1944, and all the veterans who took part in the actions of that harrowing day 65 years ago.

We will include a poem written by a friend and Vietnam Veteran, Joe Lama, in 1973:

Yours


We are the sons, your sons,

of another lost generation.

Some of us have been Lost,

Not to death, but to Hate, to Greed, to Insensitivity.


Yet a few of us are alive to life, to Optimism.


We have experienced that which you could not,

But in telling you of our Optimism,

Which we must,

We assume the risk of perpetuating The War Myth.


This is our true burden,

our true legacy.