Reveille

ABC Wednesday
The letter is R

I went to sleep last night, thinking of the letter R, and what words and thoughts

 and things it stands for.

I woke with my heart heavy with Remembrance and the words that came to my mind were such somber ones, such as Regret, Remorse, Recrimination.

Remenbrance is not always sorrowful, and after I had my breakfast and my coffee,

 and the sun came out, 

other R's came to mind.  

Reality, Rejuvenation, Reincarnation, Reconciliation, Romance

and then there is always hope of the Great Reveille

which I try Resolutely to believe in.

This, of course, was not what Housman had in mind when he wrote his poems for 

The Shropshire Lad,  - nor was his Reveille a military one,

 but it rather appealed to me as a way to wake and carry on.....

Reveille   by A.E. Housman

Wake: the silver dusk returning

Up the beach of darkness  brims,

And the ship of sunrise burning

Strands upon the eastern rims.

Wake: the vaulted shadow shatters,

Trampled to the floor it spanned,

And the tent of night in tatters

Straws the sky-pavilioned land.

Up, lad, up, 'tis late for lying:

Hear the drums of morning play;

Hark the empty highways crying

'Who'll beyond the hills away?'

Towns and countries woo together,

Forelands beacon, belfries call;

Never lad that trod on leather

Lived to feast his heart with all.

Up, lad: thews that lie and cumber

Sunlit pallets never thrive;

Morns abed and daylight slumber

Were not meant for man alive.

Clay lies still, but blood's a rover;

Breath's a ware that will not keep.

Up, lad: when the journey's over

There'll be time enough to sleep.

And in Remembrance of the courage and bravery of the men

 who suffered the battle fields 

and gave their precious lives to defend our freedom,  

a Poppy from the fields of Flanders, laid Reverently upon their graves.

More Rs here with thanks to Roger and Denise.