[John Whitworth]

I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on, as if in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.

[Bill Carpenter]

We have poppies too. Best wishes to the veterans.

https://scontent.ftpa1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...85&oe=56B55237

[Duncan Gillies MacLaurin]

I think John may have a point. As explained here.

Duncan

[Jayne Osborn]

Oh, Duncan, puh-lease!

The Guardian is a left-wing rag which has its own agenda. This is not an ''explanation'' which defends John's views, as far as I'm concerned.
There was much discussion on the radio today. "The most fortunate in our society have turned the solemnity of remembrance for fallen soldiers in ancient wars into a justification for our most recent armed conflicts." What a load of b****cks!

[Andrew Mandelbaum]

The idea that you can honor an eighteen year old brutally murdered in a trench a hundred years ago without allowing yourself to question the State and the dillusions used to get that eighteen year old into the trenches of yesterday and today is an interesting juxtaposition, a thimble of memory and a sea of Lethe.

[Ann Drysdale]

I am trying to recall a rather good poem I heard once which seems relevant in the light of the very recent meetings with the Saudi government. It took the form of a memo to the UK delegates. I wish I could recall who wrote it. It concluded, roughly, thus:

Show them friendship and kinship and warships,
Show them guns, guided missiles and jets.
And be sure to remind everybody concerned
To wear poppies, Lest Someone Forgets.

Bollocks is as variable in appearance as the thing(s) for which it is named.

Perhaps the honest answer is to wear a white poppy.

[Andrew Frisardi]

A friend explained to me last week that poppies are the flower of choice for this remembrance because right after the war ended, poppies proliferated across the fields where the battles had happened. Is this common knowledge? It was news to me.