Australia New Zealand Army Corps Day commemorates the great losses at the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915. Nearly a century later this date is still remembered as the defining moment in the founding of national identity for the new antipodean colonies. On Sunday April 27th 2008 ANZAC DAY was commemorated at the National Cemetery in Westwood, California, and the Australian, New Zealand, Turkish Consuls General and the British Deputy Consul were present at the flagpole.
This field set with plinths and crosses
Fanning out in rows as far as you may scan,
Last depository for that supreme premium
The ultimate sacrifice for freedom and the chosen cause,
This flag surmounted garden of sorrow
Where the debt that never can be paid is sown,
This pyrrhic commemoration emblematic of Passchendaele,
This is a good place to remember the price paid at Gallipoli.
This Nation’s monument to those who fell
Offering up their blood to serve the ‘greater good’
Whose dust now moulders where they lie
Gives small comfort to us who here remaining stand,
To learn the news that Marathon was won
That tattered remnants of the Light Brigade returned,
This retreat of careworn grim faced veterans
This is a good place to remember the price paid at Gallipoli.
When the bugle’s piercing clamor fades away,
As flowers we brought and laid grow limp and wilt
And we retreating thoughtful of the loss
Retrace our steps and wonder at the cost
Our nations meet to hold their place in time
Until we all are called upon that fateful day
When faith and duty meet the final cause,
Until then we will remember the price paid at Gallipoli.
The family with Patricia Schwarzmann FSA
2 comments:
Of course I always remember the ANZACS and Galliopoli.
For one my Auld Pop served in the Eastern Theatre with the 1st Batallion ASH. And the other many of my great-grandfather's immediate kin emigrated to New Zealand. Many of my closest biological relatives probably all live in Australia and New Zealand so I have always felt a special bond with these former colonies. We came to the USA via Ellis Island and Montreal, Canada 1923-1927.
We met by the way at the Burns Supper in Fresno. You were great and we wish we had heard more of you. They sure wasted a lot of time on frivolities which should have been taken care of in a club meeting not an event open to the public by ticket sale. It was an earnest Burns supper in some ways but it was a disappointment. But you were not. Intellectually and in the tradition of honoring Burns you were the best!
NE OBLISCARIS...DO NOT FORGET
Richard K. Munro
rothaich5@bak.rr.com
Keep up the blogging, good man!
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