Edmund Montague Morris, Girls in a Poppy Field
Oil on Canvas, c. 1896
69.2 x 56.5 cm
Art Gallery of Ontario
Gift of Sir Edmund Walker, Toronto, 1918
What girls in a poppy field know
is only what their arms can embrace
after a morning stooping low
in lime-rich fields. The red will wear
on their aprons so long as the bombing
goes on. Flanders will fill
inevitably, the soil displaced
for the fallen,
the sky cleared of the larks, the crosses
all that remains that we'll bear.
© 2012 Maureen E. Doallas
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This poem is dedicated to my father, C. Henry Doallas, veteran of World War II (Merrill's Marauders), 1916-1990, and to all veterans whose memory we honor.
Edmund Montague Morris (1871-1913), Canadian Painter. According to the profile at the link, his Girls in a Poppy Field was awarded a bronze medal at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York.
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5 comments:
Maureen what a lovely tribute to Veterans and your father...there are too many crosses in the fields and in our hearts...thank you for posting this beautiful painting and your words...bkm
Your words say so much.
I liked your quote today also.
Lovely poem, lovely painting. Thank you.
This would make a lovely frame for an animation telling your father's story so that children (but not only children) can learn, beginning with the girls in the poppy field, going to Flanders, continuing to Arlington, ending with the poppy field again.
Thank you for posting it. Peace and continued good,
Diane
This is an exquisite poem! Thanks so much for sharing it! I've posted a link to this post from the Copaiba Press Facebook page. I think many of our writers will enjoy it. Thanks to your father, too, for his service. This poem is a lovely tribute to him.
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