In Memory May 31, 2010

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In memory of the brave men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice
in service of the United States of America.


High Flight
John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
June 9, 1922 — December 11, 1941


Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds,
and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless falls of air...
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor eer eagle flew —
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high, untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Hymn to the Fallen
John Willams
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ejg-lPcFxU

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God bless

Submitted by on

all our warriors, the fallen and those still fighting for all of us out of love.
May the old warriors we have among us after their wars find peace as well today.

Bailey Summers

REMEMBRANCE

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ALISON

They shall not grow old,
As we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them,nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun,
And in the morning,
We will remember them.

LEST WE FORGET .

( Ode to the fallen)

ALISON

Better than not...

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It may be a bit late (I only got about 15 hours of sleep last week; CONduit and the week leading into it are like that), but, in response:

Grey Rider

Words and music by Mike Whitaker (c)1988

When morning came along the trail I'd wake and find them here,
My friends and my companions, and a warm fire blazing near.
Now when the sunlight wakes me, alone I face the day.
Grey Rider, if you hear me, don't let the memory slip away.

We thought that it would never end, this comradeship we shared.
Together to the end of time, in everything we dared;
Living for the moment, yet not afraid to die.
Grey Rider, why have I been left to say the last goodbye?

One by one they fell away, now they all have gone,
But I still walk this lonely road and they live on in song.
Nothing is forgotten, though it seems so long ago.
Grey Rider, when I too am gone, may it still be so.

Tell them that I miss them all each minute of the day.
Tell them I will not forget nor wander from the way.
Tell the one I love the most, our love will always be.
Grey Rider, tell them, tell them to wait for me.

In "Stave the Wails" songbook, Wail Songs and Harpy Music, 1991

-Liz

Successor to the LToC
Formerly known as "momonoimoto"

And again

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Not that we sing a lot of songs like this, or anything, but...
Response number two:

The Sun is Also a Warrior

by Leslie Fish

Two men walked on a beach in the sun.
One left footprints; the other left none.
One was a man that no man obeys,
The other a god from the ancient days.

"Look," said the man, "How my kind make war.
I summoned you here to ask 'What for?'"
"For wealth or land," the god replied.
"For pride or freedom, or some king's lies."

The sun is also a warrior. Knowledge can also destroy,
Nor can the kindest will preserve you from the kill.
Not all of wisdom brings joy.

"Four of those five," the first one said,
"Are not enough to appease the dead.
To save my world, all this strife must cease.
So now I bid you to conjure peace."

The god said: "Yes, though it grieves me sore,
For I was also a god of war,
And I remember what you forget.
For of those five you may still regret."

The sun is also a warrior. Knowledge can also destroy,
Nor can the kindest will preserve you from the kill.
Not all of wisdom brings joy.

He raised his voice and he raised his hand.
All strife stopped at the god's command.
No voice ventured an angry word.
No hand struck, and no weapon stirred.

In time the man called the old god back.
"Look," he cried, "what my people loack!
One lord rules over all the earth,
And we're all his slaves from the hour of birth."

The sun is also a warrior. Knowledge can also destroy,
Nor can the kindest will preserve you from the kill.
Not all of wisdom brings joy.

"He owns all wealth and he owns all land.
We starve and die under his command.
He speaks the truth and he gives us peace,
Yet all I hope for is our release."

The god said: "Yet this is what you willed.
For only thus is your wish fulfilled.
War's five sources I took away,
Yet I will give four of them back today."

The sun is also a warrior. Knowledge can also destroy,
Nor can the kindest will preserve you from the kill.
Not all of wisdom brings joy.

He raised his hand and his voice once more,
And all the world overturned in war.
And when the last of those fires let fall,
There was no lord in the world at all.

"Go rebuild now," the old god said.
"Feed the living, and bury the dead.
And remember this when you speak of war,
And think upon what is worth fighting for!"

The sun is also a warrior. Knowledge can also destroy,
Nor can the kindest will preserve you from the kill.
Not all of wisdom brings joy.

Just to be clear, neither this nor the one before are mine, but they felt apropos and respectful, and both are available to filkers to sing freely, so I don't worry too much about posting the lyrics. (Besides, Leslie doesn't know where I live, so she can't hunt me down and shoot me. :-P Not that she likely would... ^^; )

-Liz

-Liz

Successor to the LToC
Formerly known as "momonoimoto"

One more

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Because I can't leave this without something from Kathy Mar, and especially for anyone who has read Gordon R. Dickson's Dorsai stories:

Man of War

Words and Music by Kathy Mar

I am a Dorsai and I've learned a grisly skill
They've taught me how to win a war, ten thousand ways to kill
And all the vicious weapons to be used each time I fight
Now I've become a weapon of such fearsome might.

I am no soldier, I'm a man of war
I am no soldier, I'm a man of war.

My code is my life and my duty is my soul
The filling of our contract is my only kind of goal
I go where they tell me and I fight the ones they say
And none of us would think to ever run away

I am no soldier, I'm a man of war
I am no soldier, I'm a man of war.

We fight and we march to the mercenaries' drum
And many wars are ended by the rumor that we've come
We take to the field and the enemy all flies
I've seen them run in terror from the look in my eyes

I am no soldier, I'm a man of war
I am no soldier, I'm a man of war.

We land on some planet and we fight until we fall
Or till the war is ended and we hear them sound recall
They say we are bloodless, that we're nothing but machines
But still they beg to hire us when they have the means

I am no soldier, I'm a man of war
I am no soldier, I'm a man of war.

The years count up in kills and the battles still go on
And none of us believe that we will see a peaceful dawn
And it's aeons of victory to minutes of defeat
But I'm waiting for the day that you will make us obsolete
I'm praying for the day when you will make us obsolete.

I am no soldier, I'm a man of war
I am no soldier, I'm a man of war.

Words and music copyright (c) 1988 by Kathy Mar
Noncommercial distribution only
Personal use only

On ON A BRIGHT WIND tape, copyright (c) 1984 by Off Centaur Pubs.

-Liz

Member in good standing of the Dandelion Conspiracy

-Liz

Successor to the LToC
Formerly known as "momonoimoto"

Okay, because...

Submitted by on

...I can't help myself:

The Stories We've Lost

Words and music by BJ van Look

Oh, he could tell stories--he was a true bard
He found so easy what I've found so hard:
To take what you've lived through and spin out a tale.
How odd that it should be his heart that would fail.

He lived his life truly, he lived fully in it
Tasted each breath and seized every minute
How much was he hurting? What pain did it cost?
But, oh, when I think of the stories we've lost.

The trip through North Africa he took as a teen
Tunisia and Lisbon, the Louvre and the Seine
His grandfather's farm, his grandmother's cow
Who'll be telling all those stories now?

The horse-thief ancestor from 1304
Berlin in the '40s in the midst of the war
How it felt. How it tasted. How it smelled. How it looked.
The small truths the authors don't put into books.

He lived his life truly, he lived fully in it
Tasted each breath and seized every minute
How much was he hurting? What pain did it cost?
But, oh, when I think of the stories we've lost.

Stories of music and family and friends
Stories of the sidewalk that never ends
Stories he painted with a powerful hand
Stories I couldn't--just yet--understand.

Oh, he could tell stories--and his were the best
Somehow, he always could one-up the rest
I pushed at the edges, I risked life and limb
Oh, the things that I tried, to have stories like him.

He lived his life truly, he lived fully in it
Tasted each breath and seized every minute
How much was he hurting? What pain did it cost?
But, oh, when I think of the stories we've lost.

If you like it, drop the author a line. The e-mail address provided with the file I have is: [email protected]. I don't know if it's still in use, but if it is, I'm sure notes of appreciation would be, well, appreciated. ^__^

-Liz

-Liz

Successor to the LToC
Formerly known as "momonoimoto"

I was pointed here by a

Submitted by on

I was pointed here by a friend. This is my song about my dad -- thank you for posting it. It means a lot.

BJ

And again, again

Submitted by on

Going with the flow of songs...

The Queen of Lilies

Words by Sherry Kramer
Music by Dave Thewlis

All morning we rode in a world grey with rain,
That covered the tears that men shed for a Queen;
For she was as fair as the moonlight on lilies.
Her birthright was laughter and loving and living,
And evil the fortune that left her that day
With nothing but dreamers and lilies and rain.

She smiled at me once as she cantered by,
I remember her now through the mists of the rain;
And then in this moment give thanks for the day
That brought me to serve such a glorious queen,
And I laud the gods that let me keep living
In the mud of a world that still can grow lilies.

Far above roses I'll always love lilies;
Pale, tall, and proud, they're often passed by
For flowers more suited to our way of living.
Yet sometimes in springtime and sometimes in rain
The heart has a need for a Goddess, or queen,
And such was the need that I felt on that day.

I left home and followed, as night follows day,
Followed the flag of my lady of lilies,
And rode into war at the side of my Queen.
The people came out to watch us go by;
We waved, and they cheered, and what is the rain
To an army of dreamers grown weary of living?

But mostly the world is made up of living
For more than an instant, an hour, a day,
Be it ever so full of sunshine or rain.
And it's hard to remember a loyalty to lilies;
Hard to remember, when she's passed on by,
The face and the fate of a fortuneless Queen.

They say she was damned, or else mad, our queen,
But she gave us grace with her loving and living,
And never have angels been closer to men
Or ridden to war as they did on that day;
She led us to battle, in April, in rain;
Laughing, and singing, and crowned all in lilies.

One last homage to our queen, now at break of day:
We betray her by living. Let us bring her lilies
And silent pass by her, and leave her to the rain.

On ACTS OF CREATION tape, copyright (c) 1994 by Julia West

-Liz

-Liz

Successor to the LToC
Formerly known as "momonoimoto"

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