Contemplating Flanders was inspired by A Tribute to the Brave by Jake Soltys. You can find it in this document, along with all the rest of the winning entries from last year's National Youth Remembrance Contests. I love how Jake uses both versions of the first line of In Flanders Fields ("...the poppies blow..." and "...the poppies grow..."), and how smoothly he incorporated a small part of such a well-known Canadian poem into his own piece of art.
I've done something a bit similar below because I thought the concept was really neat. I hope John McCrae would be proud of what his poem, In Flanders Fields, has inspired other Canadians to write.
(All words in bold are from In Flanders Fields by John McCrae).
In Remembrance...
Contemplating Flanders
Written by Lilyana Page
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row…
I think of the many men and women
Who sacrificed to keep Canada free.
I'll never be able to comprehend
Just how many sacrifices they made for us;
Just how many sacrifices they made for me.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow…
I think it best to always savour sunset glow,
For we cannot say when we'll find
We've run out of time, and be reminded
That we aren't the ones
Who get to say when it's our time to go.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high…
Will we hold it high, flame blazing
Against the blood-red sky?
Will we let the torch slip through our timid fingers,
Or will we choose to fiercely protect
The hard-won freedom our ancestors preserved,
Sacrificing more for us than we could have ever deserved?