Memorial Day - Remembering Freedom is Not Free

Poppies signify those soldiers who fought and died for our freedom whether here at home during civil war, or abroad such as two world wars, and middle east conflicts. This is Flanders Fields that I painted while reviewing that poem by Lt. Col. John McCrae that says it all. This is watercolor 20x30 and is SOLD to our good friend and Navy veteran neighbor Jim Murray.   Here are the words McCrae wrote:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead: Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved: and now we lie
In Flanders fields!

Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you, from failing hands, we throw
The torch: be yours to hold it high
If ye break faith with us who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields

Composed at the battlefront on May 3, 1915
during the second battle of Ypres, Belgium