Tribute Poems

[military granny]

THE YOUNG MAN STANDS AND TAKES AN OATH
BEFORE HIS GOD AND COUNTRY BOTH

SWEARS AN ALLEGIANCE TO HIS FLAG
THEN GOES ON HOME TO PACK A BAG

THEY SHIP HIM EAST SO HE CAN TRAIN
TO USE HIS MUSCLES, BRAWN AND BRAIN

HE IS THERE FOR WEEKS ON END
MET SOME BUDDIES AND A FEW BEST FRIENDS

A YEAR AGO, IN HER EYES, HE WAS STILL A CHILD
FAST CARS, LOUD MUSIC AND FRIENDS, HE WAS A LITTLE WILD

HE COMES HOME CHANGED FROM BOY TO MAN
GUESS EVERYONE KNOWS IT WASN’T A FLASH IN THE PAN

THERE IS CONFLICT IN THE MIDDLE EAST
THE CONGO, IRAQ AND ISRAEL ARE NOT THE LEAST

HE HAS BEEN TRAINED BY ONLY THE BEST
WITH LITTLE TIME OFF AND VERY LITTLE REST

WE ALL KNOW HE WILL GET THOSE ORDERS
HIS BATTALION SOON LIVING IN CLOSE QUARTERS

NO MORE BRICK BUILDINGS TO LIVE IN
BUT TENTS AND COTS AND FOOD IN TINS

NO MORE SNOW AND MUD TO MARCH THROUGH
BUT THE SKY’S THE SAME, MAYBE DARKER BLUE

WHAT HE NOW CALLS A BLANK EXERCISE
WILL BECOME A LIFE WHERE AMMO FLIES

KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN BOYS, A MOTHER WRITES
AND PRAYS THEY COME HOME SAFE, EVERY NIGHT

WE ALL KNOW THE PRAYERS, AND IN GOD WE TRUST
BUT DO OUR JOB, AS THE ARMY, WE MUST

THEY STICK TOGETHER LIKE A FAMILY OF BROTHERS
ALL OF THEM OUR SONS AND US THEIR MOTHERS

LETTERS FROM HOME THEY MEAN SO MUCH
E-MAIL OR HAND WRITTEN, IT’S THE HEARTS THEY TOUCH

FOR ABOUT SIX MONTHS ARE BOYS WILL BE GONE
TIME WILL GO SLOW AND IT WILL SEEM SO LONG

HE WILL COME HOME, CHANGED ONCE MORE
SOME THINGS HE WILL SEE, MAY LEAVE HIM HEART SORE

BUT WE WILL BE HERE, WE ARE HIS FAMILY YOU SEE
AND HE WAS THERE, TO KEEP OUR COUNTRY FREE

SO WHILE YOU GO ABOUT YOUR LIFE SO CARE FREE
REMEMBER WITHOUT OUR SONS DRESSED IN GREEN, IT JUST WOULDN’T BE

 

[Booked_Spice]

Miltary Granny,

Thought is an awesome poem. Thank you very much for sharing

 

[camochick]

Great poem military granny. >

 

[military granny]

Thanks Ladies
It was wriiten shortly after we got the news my son was leaving.

 

[Ashes]

thank you for the lovely poem. I enjoyed it 

 

[Kid_Recruit]

This is just a poem I wrote for the fallen infantry, I'm not sure if anyone will like it but it's worth a shot, enjoy

As the blood spills
The tides of war fill the tunnel of life
The ones to search for the light
To fight the darkness
We hide our pain
As our insides fill with rage
The bodies line row on row
On sand, grass, ice and snow
Our fallen comrades haunt us as they Rome as ghosts
We will always remember as the guns go off
The rifles fire
The shells and casings hit the floor
Open caskets are what remain of this quarrel
The bodies’ burn
The families’ urn
The love lost and hate gained
The screams are heard through the skies
Soldiers flock from all around
The lowest lows
The highest highs
Angels of death are we
The few among the many
To serve and protect
To kill with respect
To win the fight
To save those lost in the dark of night
To herd the sheep that stray
And unite humanity
For one better day …

 

[Old Guy]

When 'the last full measure of devotion' is given, there are always those who wait in vain.

By the Pasture Gate

Mike was nine and I was seven
when she came to share our lives.
A romping pup with huge brown eyes,
she soon answered to her name -- Sunny.

The school bus dropped us every day
at Mr. Gleason's place.
We walked across his land and ours
instead of taking the long way around.
Sunny would meet us at the pasture gate.

After Mike went to college and then the Army,
she still met me, rain or shine.
But she always hesitated at the gate,
looking for Mike.

Sunny began to show signs of age in her tenth year.
Only Mike's visits could bring back the young dog.
For a long time after I went to college
she kept going to the gate, to wait and wait,
then walk slowly home.

Last week we got word from Iraq.
Mike will never see twenty-four.
Sunny stopped eating the day of his funeral.

Now I sit in the dark, rocking the old dog.
I offer water in my cupped hand and she drinks,
just to be polite.
She lies quiet in my lap, but not sleeping.

It will be tonight, I know, and hold her close.
She awaits the sound of his voice --
his call from the pasture gate.



©  JR Hume, 2004

**********************

Memories of a Soldier

On cold winter mornings I remember --
that walk out to the barn
and me on the way back to the house
balancing a puppy in a box.

Christmas and a pup for my brother.

Later, much later,
I met a tall soldier on our front porch.
He twisted his hat in meaty hands,
"I thought you might want to know how it was.
We figured I ought to stop by --
and, anyway, I was his friend."

There were pictures.
His friend and I handed them back and forth.
I wrote what he told me
on the blank backs.

"This here was Kuwait,
before we went north . . .
"Outside Baghdad,
at the mass graves . . .

"And this is Fallujah . . .

He dropped the picture, as if burned.
It reminded him of terror, noise,
radio calls, machine guns,
bombs -- death.

And this is Fallujah.

We cry and hold each other.
I remember . . .

A Christmas puppy in a box.



©  JR Hume, 2004

********************

Daniel's Birthday

Shadow woke me.
He jumped on my bed and lay there, shivering,
like he does when the neighbors shoot fireworks.
He's really my brother's dog, not mine,
but he took to sleeping on my bed after Daniel went away.

I got worried when Shadow whined.
He ain't that type.
We went downstairs.
I figured a drink of water might do us both good.

Mom was at the kitchen table.
Shadow went straight to her and laid his head in her lap.
"He woke me up," I said. "Shakin' like that and even whined,
but only once or twice."

That was when I saw she was crying.
"It's Daniel.  Something has happened to him."
She went to the big windows and stared out,
Shadow kept right by her side.

"Daniel's okay," I promised.
"Today's his birthday -- he has to be okay."

Shadow and Mom walked me to the bus that morning.
She hugged me right in front of all the other kids.
Just before lunch the principal came to my room
and said he had to take me home.
I felt all cold and shivery, like Shadow.

Two Army guys met me on the porch.
I like soldiers in their green uniforms,
but I didn't want them there on Daniel's birthday.

Mom was in the kitchen with Dad.
That was the first time I ever saw my father cry.



© JR Hume, 2004

********************

Lost Hero

My brother left for Vietnam the summer I turned ten.
Teddy bear and I were asleep
when he died in a landing zone
on the far side of the moon.

A haze obscures his face – his voice I can’t recall.
I remember my own tears and his shining silver wings.

I asked him not to go - ordered it, in fact.
He always obeyed my shrill commands,
except for just that once.

Sometimes I dream . . .

My arms clasp his neck.
Muscles move in his shoulders.
Calloused hands hold my arms.
I cannot fall.

Piggyback rides were his specialty.



©  JR Hume, 2002
revised, 2006

******************

God bless the fallen and their families. 

Jim

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Thanks Jim, it's very touching and fitting, as always.

 

[therev]

I wasn't sure where to post this, only know that the spirit is leading me to do so.  If it needs to be elsewhere please move it. 

RIP

Rest in peace they say
offering me their final salute
as my body passes them
in the dust and oppressive heat
of this foreign soil.

I journey home
but in spirit, I linger here
for I do not rest -
there is no peace.

Alongside my commrades I remain faithful
the still presence, a shadow in their minds.
They pray for me and mine,
and remember me with fondness
yet not too effusively
fearing my fate will be theirs.

Rest in peace they say.
Tonight my family will sleep
with the uneasy reality of grief.
Trying to understand the whys and who is to blame.

Rest in peace they say...
Rest in peace.
May I find peace in my eternal rest.

26 july 2006 written by Reverend Lara upon hearing the news of Mjr. Hess von Kruedener's death at UN observation post

 

[Springroll]

It's a beautiful poem.

Thank you for posting it.

 

[military granny]

I thought of you today,
with everything the news did say.
I cant help but worry for you,
but that’s just what we at home do.
I cry for families and what they lost,
trying to bring peace, at a huge cost.
We paced, shook , worried and cried,
it happens every time a soldier has died.
What do we say to those left behind,
hug them and hold them and just be kind.
What do we tell our soldiers over there,
we wish this wasn't’t their cross to bare.
A city is in mourning, the sky’s are grey,
too many names announced today.
We will stand there in your place,
as they talk of God and grace.
We will bow our heads and pray,
and add your name to the words they say.
Stay safe my dear, and please take care,
your one in a million and very rare.
We’ll welcome you home with a joyful tear,
but until then, we will live in fear.
We want no more days like today,
no more losses to explain away.
Safe at home you will soon be,
from the worry and fear we will be free.

Military Granny
August 3,2006

 

[hockeygirl]

Very nice poem granny.

 

[Booked_Spice]

Very nice. MG, Very nice.

Thank you

 

[Black Watch]

nice and moving

 

[Canadian.Trucker]

Very heartfelt.  I'm sure you just summed up how a lot of mother's, wives and loved ones are feeling right now.  Thank you for that.

 

[military granny]

Thanks Guys and Gals. Now that its "down on paper" I cant read it, it makes me cry.  :'(

To all the men and women serving our great nation, your families love you and miss you.

 

[17thRecceSgt]

+10 MG.  +10

MRM

 

[17thRecceSgt]

Poem for our Hero's

~Always~

The news, so sad, so tragic...
today was in my face.
I tried to think, and yes, I prayed
"They will rest safe in His place"...

Our hero's, yes they are in fact
the best of all mankind
have given of themselves in ways
a gift ALWAYS left behind.

For others, they have gone now,
to rest peacefully for all of time,
their gift to them, forever lasts
never forgotten nor "left behind".

Those stars that brightly twinkle in the sky,
that never fade nor wain,
is our brave soldiers heart, and souls
who have gone...When God called their name

RIP our Canadian Heros.

 

[snowy]

That was a wonderful poem Military Granny

 

[Pea]

Very beautiful Military Granny. Thank you for sharing. Definitely tugged on the heart strings.