h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I visited the Tower of London today to see the 888, 000 ceramic poppies in the moat - each one representing a fallen Briton in the First World War. 888, 000 is just a number but seeing that sea of red and knowing each one represented a life lost and a family torn apart, knowing for every poppy there were three other men who survived with shattered bodies and minds, knowing for every poppy there are three cornflowers in France and five edelweiss in Germany and countless fallen flowers in other countries across the globe was absolutely stunning (in the true sense of the word)

Yes, I found them very stunning myself. There will be a mention of them in next week as I get to that part of my adventures. There is still 3 weeks of adding to them, the display is not to be complete until Remembrance Day.



F S

I look forward to reading about the poppies in the Post. I'm sure there are many people who remember older family members who went to fight the Great War, some coming home again and some not, but all affected in some way. Now that the last surviving veteran of that war is gone, all that's left are the memories of family members and printed accounts by those who fought....

My Grandfather was a veteran of the Great War, my mother's father. My father was a veteran of the Second World War.(My father's father was too young for the 1st World War and too old for the Second) I remember my Maternal Grandfather was a great supporter of the 'VFW' (Veteran's of Foreign Wars) while my father was an officer in the 'American Legion' I can remember them fighting about the importance of each. Apparently the VFW was formed as a veteran's club that could exclude the survivors of the American Civil War. By the end of the Second World War they had all passed away, so the new group opted for the American Legion to avoid competition with the World War One Members.

Both groups still exist.

F S

We've ordered one of the poppies when the display gets taken down. My great grandfather was in the first world war, luckily came home but lost a foot in the process.

http://poppies.hrp.org.uk/

Red Ceramic Poppy

Imagine yourself a red ceramic Poppy,
placed with care into the English soil.
One hundred years ago you were a soldier,
a frightened teen in a chaotic world.
You'd been sent, by King's command, into the battle-
A mindless melee John French thought he'd won.
Perhaps some yards of France had been reclaimed
at a mind numbing cost of mothers' sons.
You were one of those shot, gassed or burned.
Hit by a shell and blown to kingdom come.
(In ‘fourteen they had funerals for the fallen.
Mass burials became the norm before Verdun.)
That's how you went from the playing fields of Eton
to an unmarked grave somewhere in Northern France.
So now you are a red ceramic poppy,
a symbol of an Empire, now passed.
Placed in English soil by teenaged hands.
one of nine hundred thousand home at last.

John F. McCullagh

Thank you for sharing

F S

That's beautiful!

I thought that poem trod a very careful line between avoiding glorifying war while still showing an understanding and appreciation of what the young men on the frontline (and behind it) experienced.

BTW if anyone wants to see the poppies at the Tower of London for real, go early if you can; a sister in law got there at 7am last Sunday and it was crowded even at that hour.

I have a sense that for inexplicable reasons our sensitivity to
Nov 11th remembrances is at an all time emotional high this year.

Perhaps it's because so many countries are still, and even more,
engaged in conflicts while the nature of warfare is changing to
strange new parameters beyond the traditional battle-lines.

In Canada last week we lost two soldiers in separate attacks,
one was an auto hit-and-run and another with an antique rifle.

Both perpetrators were shot dead leaving us wondering who and
why they did these things - but it is clear that the uniform was the
target. And people have come together in support of our forces
as not seen since WW2. War memorials in every city have been
covered in floral displays for the past two weeks. Many are now
being cleared to make way for the 'official' wreath layings to come
on Saturday. What had become in recent years just one moment
of awkward silence on the day has become a two week tear fest.



Meanwhile, I keep looking at pics of the growing poppy bloom
at the Tower of London and being reminded of the 'red bloom'
described by HGWells in War of the Worlds. It is not a huge
feature in film versions of the story but is a constant puzzle
never really resolved in the original book except as a factor
of alien content in the invasion.

Symbolically it likely was Wells' subconscious idea of a field
of blood - a symbol of the ruinations of warfare - but I find the
spreading crimson of the Tower poppies more than just a bit
disturbing on many levels - especially knowing how often and
how specifically Wells did see glimpses of the future.

Many precognitive images appear in his books - such as his vivid
description of an explosion in the First Men in the Moon. Forty years
before the first A-bomb he describes with eerie accuracy the scale
and effects of a then-unimaginable explosion.

The Tower red bloom is more scary than sentimental for me.
What are we trying to tell ourselves...


~jwf~

This short video of the workers creating the poppies
brings me joy. And even hope.
http://youtu.be/CL31gWEKuws


~jwf~

~ jwf ~

your post 11 :