Tag Archives: Remembrance Day

Red Poppies by L. McCarthy

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Red poppies remind me of:
A painting by Vincent van Gogh,
A holiday postcard sent to me by a friend traveling near France,
A two dollar coin,
A warm sunny day in November.

Red poppies remind me of:
Stopping suddenly and being silent for one minute mid shop,
Then continuing on like nothing happened.

Red poppies remind me of:
Stories that I’ve heard of war,
Fighting that I never saw,
Soldiers’ names engraved in stone
In the centre of most towns I’ve known.

Red poppies grow
Where soldiers, long ago, stopped, suddenly;
Silent, forever.
Red poppies remind me of them.

Photo from Pexels by Pixabay

Lest We Forget: The Red Poppy by James Aitchison

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The countryside had once been green,

No tree or hedge can now be seen,

Came the war,

The cannons’ roar,

The fields reduced to mud and blood,

The deep cold craters fill and flood,

And suddenly, a miracle:

Red poppies grew as though to say

We will find peace again one day.

Teacher’s note: By the time the First World War ended, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month 1918, a miracle had occurred.  In the devastated fields of Flanders, the scene of horrific carnage, red poppies bloomed again.  That is why the red poppy is the symbol of Remembrance Day.

Photo from Pexels by Elina Sazonova

It’s November Already!

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Where has the year gone! Only two months to go and we’ll be in 2025. So many great poems and wonderful things have been celebrated already this year in both prose and rhyme. So for the month of November let’s focus on ‘The Race That Stops A Nation’ – The Melbourne Cup, Remembrance Day, World Kindness Day, Thanksgiving and St Andrew’s Day. I am also going to celebrate a day that caught my eye – National Chicken Soup for the Soul Day on November 12th. Of course you are welcome to send in poems about other events or ideas that you’d like to highlight.

Send your poems to ozchildrenspoetry@gmail.com and if you are sending an image to accompany your work, please remember to include the full URL or image attribution so it can be added as a link below the image.

Image attributions: Image 1 Image 2 Image 3 Image 4 Image 5 Image 6

Peace by Jacinta Lou

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The fighting is over.
Put down your gun.

Then look around you.
Tell me –  who’s won? 

The cities are flattened,
wreckage glints in the sun.

Look all around here.
Which side has won?

The soldiers go home.
They follow the sun.

They look all around.
Has anyone won?

They fought for their countries,
every daughter and son.

When we have peace;
the war will be won.

In response to November prompt Remembrance Day.

Image from Peace.fm website

The War to End Wars – WW1 by Jacinta Lou

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We remember the fallen,
Those left behind.

We honour their service,
And why they died.

They paid with their lives,
So we could have more.

They fought and they died
In the War to End Wars.

Lest we forget.

In response to November prompt Remembrance Day.

Photo from Pixabay

Unknown Soldier by Katherine Gallagher

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We have covered him with real flowers
and taken him from country to country.

It’s always the same journey –
people standing in the streets
silently saluting
as we carry him by.

And our hands tremble
under his weight,
our eyes are shocked
by the riddle of tongues
presenting the same paradox
in every country –

the whole human voice as background
shrilled to fever
about keeping the guns at bay.

In response to November prompt Remembrance Day

A Futile Armistice: 11.11.1918 by James Aitchison

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For five years across the fields 
Brutal shells crashed down. 
Destruction claimed a savage cost 
In every ruined town. 

Lethal waves of metal rained, 
Stole eight million men. 
And when the guns fell silent 
They said, “No war again!” 

But the hearts of men are dark, 
War runs through their veins. 
It seems that peace is fragile 
Compared with wartime’s aims. 

In response to November prompt Remembrance Day

Teacher’s note:  When the First World War ended on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day, 1918, everyone called it “the war to end all wars”.  Using this poem, students can discuss why wars break out and how we can avoid them in future.

Puzzling Poppies by Celia Berrell

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How can those poppies
with flimsy-thin petals
blaze in bright red?
The answer’s now settled.

With three layers of cells
for light to shine through,
the mid-layer is colourless,
leaving just two.

Their red-pigment cells
are packed in a muddle,
shaped like the pieces in
jig-saw puzzles.

With red hues so dense
and gaps in odd ways,
those bobbing field poppies
can dazzle our gaze.

In response to November prompt Remembrance Day

Inspired by https://www.zmescience.com/science/poppy-color-petal-structure-2463625341/
‘How poppy petals create striking colors despite being thinner than your skin’

Image from Pixabay

1942 by Katherine Gallagher

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They’d hoped he’d be back for Christmas –
the lights shining down on him, the tree
somehow shielding off the horror. A break.
The family hadn’t seen him as a soldier,
in his uniform, among harvested paddocks,
the dried stubble that pricked your legs.


Arriving home, he said Merry Christmas,
hugged people and slapped them on the back.
Wandered about the place, eyes crinkled
with strain, lines dug
into his forehead. So young, he seemed
to be either laughing or very sad
as though, in between,
there was nothing.

In response to November prompt Remembrance Day.