{"id":5745,"date":"2014-11-26T08:17:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-26T08:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/?p=5745"},"modified":"2015-02-16T10:23:23","modified_gmt":"2015-02-16T10:23:23","slug":"code-ode-in-east-midlands-fields","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/code-ode-in-east-midlands-fields\/","title":{"rendered":"Code Ode: In East Midlands Fields"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn Flander\u2019s fields the poppies blow\u2026<\/em>\u201d This is the first line of one of the most famous of the WW1 poems (By John McCrae, 1915).<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you will know the truth and the truth shall set you free<\/em>\u201d, John 8.32<\/p>\n

\u201cI am the way, the truth and the life<\/em>\u201d, John 14.6.<\/p>\n

I wrote the poem below, on and around 11th Nov. 2014, the Centenary of Armistice Day, after an early morning train journey to London on the East Midlands Line.<\/p>\n

Recite this out loud:<\/p>\n

In East Midlands Fields<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the carriage’s sweet limbo, slung between
\nThe first and last, early morning stations,
\nSome, still in the night before’s delicious dream,
\nDreamt smilingly through, we hope, other’s destinations.
\nSome gamed on mobiles and other streamed distractions.
\nSome with seeming vacant stare, pierced the sky,
\nFocussed Londonwards towards the day’s transactions.
\nI assumed all felt on track, with no need to justify
\nWhat they hoped life might have in reservation.<\/p>\n

Then up the carriage trench, cheerful, chatty, charming,
\nCame the poppy man, selling floral blood spurts of a nation.
\n“Want a poppy? Or are you already poppied?”–Quite disarming.
\nThat day just one or two older people bought them.
\nI had one at home from someone else’s shopping list.
\nHow long would we remember those who fought then?
\nI joined the mute conspiracy that death does not exist
\nAs the carriage largely, silently, politely ignored him.<\/p>\n

An Eastern European pushed a wagon bringing tea.
\nOur occupation with the poppy might have bored him
\nWhose freedom’s history crossed another century, a sea
\nOf blood and hardship, before breaking through to the East Midlands Line.
\nThrough the window I could see, distant, solitary, free
\nA man in fields clear of poppies and unscarred in our time.
\nHow forever to remember them?
\nBy seeking for the truth and the truth shall make us free.<\/p>\n

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