The Flower Of The War

[Bob Pacey]

This poem is posted with the permission of Desley Pearson a resident at Coolwaters Holiday Village who nornally writes free verse.

The embroidered cushion cover that is framed on her wall. The cover was brought back to Australia after the first wourld war by Bob Vallis her uncle in 1916. The history of the piece has been lost but it is thought that it was made during a soldiers recovery from an injury.

From the roughened hands of a fighting man, a thing of beauty came to be.
The memory of a yellow flower, of home accross the sea.
The trenches hold such horror, there is no beauty there,
In the mind of men so burdened, each breath becomes a prayer.

For deliverence from this hell on earth, for loved ones far away.
For the peace, they know must come, will I survive another day.
The yellow flowers on the wall, of villa 130,
remind us of the sacrifice, of which we'll never know.

The flowers now are faded, the leaves are dull and grey.
But they hold for us a tribute, to bravery in the fray.
We'll never know if he survived, that sholder young and brave.
But we hope he returned to those he loved and fought so hard to save.

Desley Pearson ( C )

any comments will be passed on to Desi, I have tried to convince her that she should get a computor but she is in her 80's and says she is just too old.

[Maureen K Clifford]

Bob please tell Desi that her poem and the sentiments expressed by it are just beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed the read. What a wonderful keepsake to have in her possession.

Taking her poem literally I wonder if she had the embroidered item professionally cleaned if it would bring the colours back up for her.

My Mum is the same - at 88 totally digs her heels in and says no whenever I try to get her to use the computer - fear of the unknown. Most U3A run computer courses and they are run by elderly people for elderly people in the main but don't suppose there is one of those facilities close hand to you - some community groups run similar classes. She might be comfortable learning amongst people her own age or thereabouts.

Cheers

Bob

[r.magnay]

Yes and add my name to those sentiments too Bob.
Funny about the being too old to get a computer, my Dad is 87 and I tell him the same thing and he also reckons he is too old.....I'm not sure if he thinks he is too old to learn, or if he won't get enough use out of it in the time he has left, mind you he is still active and pretty healthy, he also reckons he will live to be 100....I reckon he just might too!

[Terry]

I also enjoyed your poem Desley, perhaps we might get to see more of your work.

Regards,

Terry

[Ron]

My sentiments also, well done.
Ron