POPPIES!

(This is my first blog entry.  It will be about things I like....esoterica.   I'm not really sure what I'm doing yet, but will keep at it. I warn you that there may be incontinuity...this is my train of thought...which will probably scare most sane people.)

 

“POPPIES!  Poppies will put them to sleep. Sleeeeep. Now they'll sleeeeep!”  So intoned Margaret Hamilton as The Wicked Witch of the West in 1939’s MGM’s classic blockbuster film “The Wizard of Oz.”

But by 1939 the red poppy already had quite the caché going for it.  During World War I, it had become the universal symbol of remembrance for those who had fallen in battle.  It was because of a poem, “In Flanders Fields,” written by Canadian physician and Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae after he had presided over the funeral of a fellow soldier and friend killed in the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915.  He threw it away, thinking it unworthy, but his men rescued it and became a classic.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
      Between the crosses, row on row,
   That mark our place; and in the sky
   The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
   Loved and were loved, and now we lie
         In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
   The torch; be yours to hold it high.
   If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
         In Flanders fields.

My first visit to Paris was in the early 90s.  My partner Ken and I visited around Thanksgiving. Of course, we visited the Arc de Triomphe.  It was festooned with red poppies.   I didn’t get it then, but I did later.  France was heavily involved in WWI.  We helped.  The Kaiser lost.  Red poppies were the symbol.  All going back to that Flanders Field.

Flanders doesn’t exist anymore.  It is now split between France & Belgium.  Flemish is a language that is disappearing.  It is a version of Dutch mixed with French that is unique and only spoken by extremely old people in the Dutch part of Belgium.  There is one song, that I know, that is written in French & Flemish and sung here by Jacques Brel.   (See, I told you there would be lack of continuity.)

He sings about the Flanders Fields.  I was thrilled to find this clip.  I had only seen him as an old man.  He was quite the animated hunk at this time.  The Gallic….just love them.

And then there’s Nina Simone’s Poppies….with which I’ll close.  It has nothing to do with the rest of this.  But I like it.

Remembering all our veterans today.   Thank you for your service.