Remember, Remember .....

It is Memorial Day in the USA!   And in LA, where I have lived for the last 19 months.  So today, I too Remember & pay tribute .....

Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. It commemorates U.S. Service Members fallen while in  military service.   First enacted to honour Union soldiers of the American Civil War,   it was extended after World War I to honour All Americans who have Fallen in All Wars.

O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart! 

O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up ~ for you the flag is flung ~ for you the bugle trills; 

For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths ~ for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck, 

You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won; 

Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.  

~ Walt Whitman. 1900 ~ 

Those Who Are Remembered Do Not Die !!!!!