Photo by George Klass
By Elizabeth Spence
We all know John McCrae’s poem, In Flanders Fields, where “the poppies blow,” written during the First World War (1914-1918). McCrae was a Canadian military officer and surgeon at the front in France and was deeply affected by the sight of red poppies growing amongst the graves of the fallen.
After the poem was published, red poppies, the central image in the poem, were chosen to symbolize the blood spilled by those who died in battle. Every November 11th, the anniversary of the last day of the First World War, we pay tribute to them and to all who have lost their lives in wars since.
With this year’s Remembrance Day upon us, we are showing works by some of our members on the theme of the poppy. It is our small way of paying tribute.
Valerie Cunningham shared this beautiful photo of the poppies in her garden:
Tara Gillis sent us this poignant rendering of poppy heads in acrylic paints:
Marilyn Ebsary gave us this marvelous photo taken in Amsterdam. The poppies seem to be speaking to us:
And Carol Fern Walton sent us a picture of her hand-made postcard quilt depicting a poppy:
A postcard quilt is, as the name says, a quilt the size and shape of a postcard. On the back is un-patterned or lightly patterned fabric where you write your message and the name and address of the recipient. You put a stamp on it and send it in the mail. Here’s the back of one I received recently:
All this is quite relevant to my family history, since we still have a First World War Field Service postcard from a relative who fought in France.
These postcards were quick and easy to fill in, and didn’t require the censor to spend a lot of time on them.
Some of the women in the family I bought my heritage home from trained as nurses in Boston before being sent to France during the First World War. In the house I found some souvenirs of their time there, including a military fold-up coat hanger made of wire and canvas:
And here we are, 106 years after the end of that war, still remembering, in our different ways, those who may have filled in postcards like this or used coat hangers like this, and then gave their lives in the service of their country.
We will remember them.
Photo by George Klass
We have just had a late but wonderful contribution to our Remembrance tribute by one of our artists, Barbara Gregory. She says:
“A number of years ago I was asked by the Legion president in Tatamagouche to do an oil painting of the Legion crest which features the poppy.
One Response
We will indeed, and hopefully work hard to avoid the kind of hatred and persecution that leads to war. It is so easy to forget and think of battle as something like a movie, rather than an awful reality.
I will also be bearing in mind the people in Sudan, in The Ukraine, The Gaza Strip and Israel, among the many places on this planet where war still rages and youth are sent off to fight.