Scarf, Fireworks and Siegfried Sassoon

It has been a very grey day today and I have finished my scarf!

Scarf finished

There are fireworks going off tonight, a little odd for Armistice day I feel, but fun to watch if not to listen to. I took the photo through our bedroom window.

British Legion fireworks – this photo is for V in honour of her Mum and mine.

I was a teenager when my Uncle Norman, my Dad’s older brother, gave me a volume of Siegfried Sassoon’s poems.

My present from Uncle Norman

I found them very moving, clear to understand and perhaps they helped form my pacifist outlook. One of my favourites was

Everyone Sang

Everyone suddenly burst out singing;

And I was filled with such delight

As prisoned birds must find in freedom,

Winging wildly across the white

Orchards and dark-green fields; on – on – and out of sight.

Everyone’s voice was suddenly lifted;

And beauty came like the setting sun:

My heart was shaken with tears; and horror

Drifted away … O, but Everyone

Was a bird; and the song was wordless; the singing will never be done.