Welcome to Poetry Friday! Our host this week is Rose at her blog, Imagine the Possibilities. Be sure to stop by her page for more inspiring poetry. Thanks for hosting, Rose.
Last week, I wrote about Flanders Fields and WWI. We visited Flanders at the end of our Viking River Cruise, staying in Bruges for three nights.
After visiting the American Cemetery at Flanders, we went on to Ypres to the museum commemorating the war effort and those who fell there. As you might imagine, they were mostly young men, aged 18-19. But what you might not know is that Ypres was destroyed completely during the war.
Today, it has been entirely rebuilt, staying true to the architectural style and components of what stood before the war. And it is beautiful!
Today, I found a poem about the city’s sad destruction.
Ypres
By Laurence Binyon (1918)
She was a city of patience; of proud name,
Dimmed by neglecting Time; of beauty and loss;
Of acquiescence in the creeping moss.
But on a sudden fierce destruction came
Tigerishly pouncing: thunderbolt and flame
Showered on her streets, to shatter them and toss
Her ancient towers to ashes. Riven across,
She rose, dead, into never-dying fame.
White against heavens of storm, a ghost, she is known
To the world’s ends. The myriads of the brave
Sleep round her. Desolately glorified,
She, moon-like, draws her own far-moving tide
Of sorrow and memory; toward her, each alone,
Glide the dark dreams that seek an English grave.
This poem is in the public domain due to its copyright date and found on the Poetry Foundation.
Since our return home, I’ve realized this trip fit my personality so well. It had components of places I’ve been before and loved, like Kinderdijk, and new places, like Ypres, Ghent, and Bruges in Belgium, as well as Hoorn, Dordrecht, Nijmegen, and Maastricht in the Netherlands. I love delving deeply into new places and information. Ypres has a story, and I’m now bent on learning more about it. Nijmegen has a story too – I’ll be reading more about that as well and try to share what the history books have not.
I’m not an auditory learner, so while the tour guide in Ypres was a walking encyclopedia, he spouted so much information that it was hard to absorb any! Reading about Flanders, Ypres, and WWI will be a better fit for me.
What strikes me as unusual is that after 100 years, the dead of Ypres/Flanders from WWI are remembered here every night at 8 pm in a ceremony at Menin Gate. The fact that people still remember gives me hope.
Creativity: What else have I been up to?
I got home and finished another crocheted market bag for my sister-in-law who kindly watched our pets while we took this trip abroad. I’m ready to start another now.
I have been able to continue to sell my jewelry at the two shops to which I am consigned, so I am continuing to make pieces. I registered as a vendor for a holiday show the first weekend in December, too. It will help me to reduce my inventory, but still satisfy a need to create.
I have not missed trying to write poetry; thus, I will put it on the back burner for now. In other words, I was happier not writing it. I will return to my adult mystery thriller and try to get it finished by the end of the year. That is my goal.
In addition, I still write for Medium and had a great month in September. This month will be down in numbers due to the travel replacing my writing time.
But it also gave me a huge list of things to write about.
My recent Medium articles include:
Take care, stay well, and thank you for stopping by!
What an incredible trip! Your photos are gorgeous as always. What an opening to the poem, “A city of patience, of proud name….” ah, it feels like I’m settling in for a good story.
Thanks, Linda. It was inspiring to be there.
I missed last week so thank you for sharing In Flanders Fields. I would have loved a tour of it. It’s one of my favorite poems. This week, I’m taken with the line, ” Glide the dark dreams that seek an English grave.” I have a hard time with listening and need to take notes. Thank you for this rich post and being part of this community.
Thanks, as always, for your support. I’m not done writing about Flanders. It was very moving to be in that cemetary.
Wow, what a story (and poem) about the rebuilding of of Ypres. Thanks for sharing that.
Thanks for your comments, Karen. I thought it was fascinating too. I learned a lot on this trip.
Thanks for sharing the architecture, poem, and what you learned. I was struck by ” She, moon-like, draws her own far-moving tide/Of sorrow and memory.”
Your crocheted market bag looks great!
You are welcome, Tabatha. Ypres is a fascinating place, as is Flanders Fields. I’m going to write more about it eventually.