Is there a day when bruises heal,
War’s fingerprints cease to reveal
A frail survivor left alone,
The loneliness that I now feel?
–
And is this grieving all my own,
Locked within my skin and bone?
Tears sealed behind my eyes to burn
With all the names of those I’ve known?
–
And do survivors ever learn
To feel the joy their fight should earn,
To view the world again as a child,
When alone from darkness they return?
–
Do you still remember how to smile?
Do you remember the faith that no fear can defile?
Do you remember the songs to the sky we sent
Through the harshness of every mile?
–
I rode out with you against the sin,
To keep the Light of stars in men,
Don’t abandon the hope I died to leave,
Hold to the good I left you to defend.
–
For there is more left than remembering,
More than burial songs for you to sing,
You are not alone—you stand in sunrise,
In a Love that is more than memory.
–
I feel a song in my throat revive
Warmer still than the tears I cried,
For there is more than memory,
For there is more than memory.
A very moving poem for Pearl Harbor Day. It is always a struggle, in the moment of pain and loss, to remember the good things. They may seem trivial in the depth of despair. And yet in the end, Goodness is the ultimate reality, and that which heroes have died to preserve for generations. That is the enduring hope, that has its origin in God.