Poetry Sunday

This past week Americans celebrated their Independence Day - the Fourth of July - with fireworks, parades, streets adorned with flags, and miles of red, white, and blue bunting. The Fourth of July is the high point of summer here in the US of A, sitting as it does between the traditional start of the summer season on Memorial Day and its traditional end on Labor Day. It's a day for celebrations, sales events, and the general enjoyment of life in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

I've used this poem in this space before, but it's appropriate to the season and a reminder that, on the Fourth of July, we ought to celebrate all the things that we treasure as Americans, embodied in the good old stars and stripes ...

The Flag is Passing By

by Henry Holcomb Bennett

Hats off!
Along the street there comes
A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums,
A dash of color beneath the sky:
Hats off!
The flag is passing by!

Blue and crimson and white it shines,
Over the steel-tipped, ordered lines.
Hats off!
The colors before us fly;
But more than the flag is passing by.

Sea-fights and land-fights, grim and great,
Fought to make and to save the State:
Weary marches and sinking ships;
Cheers of victory on dying lips;

Days of plenty and years of peace;
March of a strong land's swift increase;
Equal justice, right and law,
Stately honor and reverend awe;

Sign of a nation, great and strong
To ward her people from foreign wrong:
Pride and glory and honor,--all
Live in the colors to stand or fall.

Hats off!
Along the street there comes
A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums;
And loyal hearts are beating high:
Hats off!
The flag is passing by!

I hope you enjoyed the Fourth of July, and took a moment amid the fireworks, picnics, parades, and sales to remember the sacrifices, duties, and responsibilities of citizenship that made our independence a reality ... and continue to keep it so.

Have a good day, and enjoy the rest of your weekend. More thoughts later.

Bilbo