Monday is Memorial Day ...
for which I have penned these Memorial poems, to honor the beloved memory of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice... for usWarriors who gave their all ... for us.Sunday, I am honored to read my poems on worldwide satellite radio onFirebase Network's Veterans HourHear the bard of Vietnam, Gary Jacobson's dulcet tones in person live ... no, I'm not dead yet...Sunday, May, 24, 2008
7:00~8:00 PM Eastern time zone
6:00~7:00 PM Central time zone
5:00~6:00 PM Mountain time zone
4:00~5:00 PM Pacific time zone
It's easy to listen, just click:
I will read these poems:
Semper Fi, The last Firebase, Taps for the fallen brave, The Veteran, And Children of warAnd several others ... so please tune in.
Memorial
by Gary Jacobson © 2002
Remember all the boys who loyal valor wore
Just doing their duty in times of direful war
Who the mantel of heroes bore.
Remember boys who fought humanity’s good fight
Who battled, stouthearted and bold, for right.
Worship at their alter of liberty
That the flower of youth in finest hour’s nobility
Will live on in cherished memory...
Remember these holy vessels by our father's sanctified
Sent to war with pomp and ceremony glorified
Bearing terrible sword’s of swiftest lightning
A valiant place in annals of history earning
For age shall not defeat them
Assailing enemies no longer have power to condemn
These grandest princes of freedom found
Those who honor bring to hallowed ground...
Remember boys standing straight and standing tall
Who in heed to battle’s raucous call
Gave the greatest gift of life, their all...
Heroes journeying the dimming pit’s of Hellish strife
Who fought for a country they loved more than life.
Trumpets now sound plaintive, sad refrains
Shedding tears in innocent eyes still feeling pains
Grown silent now a protester's blames.
As rivers of tears flow from a generation’s eyes
A nation for her lost youth cries...
Remember loving boys who saw too much
Just sons, husbands, fathers, who’ve done too much
Contending with bastions of hate in cankered mire
To the grandest precepts of manhood inspire
Just ordinary boys standing up against despots
Lionhearted men, Freedom’s brave zealots.
With noble courage still, they silently cry
What from our sacrifice have you learned, they sigh?
For what meaning did we die
Preserving grand liberty for you and me?
Standing on the bank of heaven’s river, can’t you see
From sea to shining sea?
We’ve given up the good times
Fallen forever mid discordant rhymes.
Will you this day in honor remember
Within your heart hold dear this glowing ember
Men revered of the highest caliber?
Remember warriors who fight for a gallant cause
Forevermore without question or pause
Who yield this land of milk and honey’s berth
Ever defiant of evil to gain peace on earth
That God’s precept of brotherhood find new birth!
Award us in this hour thy dauntless approbation.
Remember always our revered brotherly union.
Remember our souls in heroes air rarified.
Remember those who for divine precepts died
By ragged scars of death purified
Men no longer from the season of fear hidden
By the world’s cares driven.
For those who’ve fallen, no longer weep
For in their purest soul cares keep...
Grant this soldier’s last prayer...never forget!
Now and forever keep fires of freedom lit
A pièce de résistance by unflagging perseverance fit!
Remember, so our struggle might not have been in vain.
Sing our battle cry of freedom’s impassioned strain.
Remember, that we may ever in spirit be with you.
Remember, to thoughts of loss and death eschew.
Remember, to love us now, as we love you...
***********************Graphic below from Nancy Meek
Garland of Brothers
http://namtour.com/garland.html
© 2000 by Gary Jacobson
No greater fear has a young boy found
Than death’s specter of war, Vietnam bound
Men From New York, California, Tuscaloosa
Cowboys from Montana to Texas Odessa
Thrust suddenly into voracious jaws of abject death
Barefaced fear in every breath
Riding into the ravenous maw of flagrant death
Inhumanity before them wolfish, covetous, overambitious
Combined in this world of avarice
Just boys living with unmitigated suffering
Pure hate seen daily in faces malevolently glaring
Gone far and away from "the world," mighty pretty
Back home in Oklahoma City
From Washington, Kansas, Kentucky
Boys from Idaho to Arizona, hoping they're lucky
Students, farmers, iron workers, carpenters
Fishermen, miners, ranchers, brick layers
Gone fighting in jungled pit with hatred's insatiable
To contend with odds formidable
Burdensome acts intensively abominable
Formed this garland of brotherhood
Combat’s bond sealed by sweat and blood
Camaraderie with their lives to trust
To make it past war’s hazardous lust
Only way to hang-in was with each other
Enduring to the end...undying together
All for one, one for all, just hoping to stay alive
Striving in every way, fated war to survive
Formed a pact by battle’s passion
Inspired by mankind’s grievous ambition
Goaded by evil’s vile intoxication
Brothers together in armed fellowship, terror seeing
Unimaginable horror doing...
Things perilous, graven, life-threatening
Desperate men facing desperate odds
Sowing and reaping whirlwinds of warrior Gods
The best of men facing the worst of men
Full-circle intertwined
Bound with ties that bind
Life and death contracts by flesh and blood signed.
This garland of brothers supersedes all others
Men in kinship with freedom’s founding fathers!
Forget them...never!
Remember this fraternal bond...forever!
**************
~The Veteran~
by Gary Jacobson © 2001 http://namtour.com/vet.html
All hail the honorable Veteran,
Whether serving as cook, tanker, combat infantryman
Standing hickory tall and proud,
Silvery head held high above the crowd
Eagle eyes burning no longer sharp and keen
Burnt preserving freedom’s light they’ve seen.
A nations veterans put body and soul on the line,
Patrolling the valley of shadowed Hell’s rhyme
Holding in pride now till the end of time
Deep feeling through unforgiven weeping
Remembering times with anticipations of dying
Hell on earth surviving...
Ask a veteran about Hell and High Water
He’ll likely map out coordinates, brother
Likely carries brimstone souvenirs in his rucksack
Cause he's been there and back
Hells fire still burning in his eye
Never forgetting brothers who still over there lie.
Veterans gave their very best
Preserved sacred values for all the rest
Honoring a land more than life they love
With courage in duty all patriots eyes observe
Valiantly answering the call to arms
Faced an evil world of harms
Paid a deadly price at their countries behest
Ripened thru war’s unholy harvest.
Veterans can talk the talk,
For indeed they walked the walk.
Veteran’s know freedom’s not cheap
For In mortal combat, you sow what you reap
Whether with scythe, sickle, or M-16
Peace grows from freedom warriors from battlefields glean.
Veterans don’t take no guff,
So don’t go putting up that weak stuff.
The fate of the world rested in Veteran hands.
Their sweat preserved these star spangled lands.
Veterans are the reason Americans walk free
Enjoying life through eyes seeing only liberty.
Veterans learned lessons of war in jungles greening black
In desserts or icy cold refusing to slack
Fought back rushing adrenaline
Facing their personal Armageddon
Waiting under fire for a virulent foes attack
Learned to watch a buddies back.
Veterans humped a sweet and sour perfumed park,
Fending off specters of death, dawn into dark
Rivers of sweat washing their soul
Dancing to death’s grim rock and roll
War made boys before their time grow old
Unless dying a hero in actions swift and bold.
Veterans dreamed of sweethearts to have and to hold
Suffered fevered chills from bones weary cold
Fighting wicked elements wills sapping
Unbearable Heat Suffocating
Monsoon rains spirits Drenching
Enduring rice paddy mud overpowering.
Old Veterans faced enemies preoccupied with his death
Still fear often that final breath
Still gaze on the world with blank stares
That cruel war on their soul still bears
Remembering the battle’s fiery combustion
Bearing Sodom and Gomorrah like conflagration.
America's veterans have seen
Agent Orange's virulent scene
Brought creeping to their families obliteration,
Delayed traumatic stress’s lingering destruction,
Horrendous nerve gas distillation,
Mankind’s Nuclear Holocaust proliferation.
Salute now our veterans who great honor bore
Who with brave distinction peace restore
Who’ve been there/done that, know the score
Who've gone above and beyond to perform that dirty chore
Offering their lives protecting generations from reality of war
A ritual sacrifice venerable veterans vehemently abhor.
A COMBAT SOLDIER'S PRAYER
by Gary Jacobson © 1999 (distibuted by the American Legion)
http://namtour.com/prayer.html
This combat soldier's prayer,
Who has served his time in Hell,
Is may we learn the lessons of war well,
That we not doom future generations,
The same old tales of horror to tell,
To endure what in youth they see mistakenly as glory.
Oh God, do not let our children
Repeat the same old story.
Make it so that America's babies live to grow old
In this land of the free and the bold.
Help us throw off the shackles of hate that bind
And grow old in a life of a peaceful kind.
Teach us that there is no glory in war,
Nor honor there that brave men should not abhor.
Teach us instead, one for another our brothers to love.
Shower us with thine Celestial message from above,
That we plant seeds of peace evermore
And make war-no-more!
But if I should die on some far, far away battlefield
Know I answered the call
For a grand principle of freedom to yield.
My fervent prayer is that death
May not have been in vain
Fighting for peace and right for the world to attain.
My brothers, American roses standing by my side
On alien soil dying
In the summer of my youthful pride
All the leaves around me falling.
Now I’m lying here still, in sunshine and in shadow,
Longing to hear, “brother next door, I love you so."
For moldering in the soft ground below,
I feel you living and loving in the world above me
Standing tall because I fought that you might be...
Oh look ye down now,
And tell me you still think of me
Honor my red blood, spilt that others might stand free.
Tell me that I did not give my all for you in vain
That brothers and sisters do not look upon my sacrifice
With hateful,
Or even worse,
Uncaring disdain.
Do not forget me when my valley’s hushed
And white with snow,
Grass growing green in the summer of my meadow
Help me see the peace I lived and died for grow.
Make my lonely grave richer,
Sweeter be...
Make this truly,
"The land of the free
And the home of the brave,"
I gave my life to save
That I might too, lie eternally,
Forever free...
~Honoring A Noble Warriors Life~
Who Made A Difference
by Gary Jacobson © 2001
http://namtour.com/noblewarriortaps.html
Play last taps over a noble warrior’s sacred grave
Now gone before, the better way to pave
From the hall’s of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli
Over hill, over dale, blazing the shadow of death’s victory
Comforted are we,
This valiant spirit has now found rebirth
For he tirelessly toiled in war’s hells on earth.
His destiny lies where the sound of guns are heard no more
Enter now that Holiest door to heaven’s celestial shore
Reserved for those who gave all standing hickory tall
For family, hearth and home fighting the good fight
Resisting opponents of right with fists of valorous might
Who lived and died for liberty
That all mankind might breathe eternally free
Proud wave his bold legacy
Great courage in greater bravery
A heroes heritage in honored history
Hear this patriotic life story
A stouthearted tradition of faith and loyalty
Revered duty to truth his gallant birthright
With zeal sworn our nation's brightest light
Winds whispering of Divine peace in God’s kingdom
Blow softly over hallowed grave of a leader of freedom
O’er a man who more than self his country loved
Who madmen’s wrongs in this wide world righted
Who peace on earth so diligently fought for
Who for a consecrated flag, arms he bore
Whenever duty called, always marching to the fore
We will never forget him...
Metered with Pure patriotism’s dignity
Answering that clarion call to sacred beings infinity
Head held proudly high with an eagles steely gaze
On ascent to heaven, herald angels triumphant glory raise
Singing of life’s many deeds worthy of praise
For him stalwartly true to his beliefs abode all his days
A warrior’s death, is only a warrior to higher slopes moving his camp
Strategically to higher ground, free from mortality’s dews and damp
Moving to a position more defendable to protect divinity’s face
To a sacred place near the Master’s grace
No more to suffer a warriors tired and weary bones
Immortal healing free from life’s slings and arrows atones
Now he's free at last from earthly toil and pain
Heaven’s richest blessings to this valiant warrior ordain
Who smiled in the face of fear with disdain
Opposing madmen to the suffering of others cavalier
Standing as a worthy barrier to make life for others easier
Family, friends and country in devotion protecting
Inalienable rights guarding
Celebrate now the life of father, brother, son exalted
All hail his life true to values precepts honored
Who powers of mortal evil with his good right arm abated
Pass now into arms of brothers again reunited
Into the arms of beloved family on the other shore waiting
For this soldier’s very being embodied giving
Who left this world a better place for his living...
Gone To Higher Ground
by Gary Jacobson © 2001
http://namtour.com/SacredGraves.html
Oh those silent whitened crosses
Heroic symbol of a nations greatest losses
Holding vanquished spirits of warriors slain
Laid low to saddened trumpets refrain
Flowers of youth planted there moldering
Beloved tearing
In hallowed dust crumbling...
But they are not there. No, not at all...
Good troopers one and all
Our brightest and best arose from that grassy mound
Again they answered the greater call,
Gone to higher ground!
Announcing my book of Vietnam poems ...
"My Thousand Yard Stare."
With over two hundred full color pictures, with beaucoup poems
in this book of my most popular poetry.
through the convenience of PayPal,
or your choice of credit cards.
purchase directly, and have it signed @:
Gary Jacobson, 6325 south Old Hwy 191, Malad, Idaho 83252
Price is $20 +postage $6 = total $26 USA dollars.
Just A Walk In The Pa
A novel packed with beaucoup memoirs, blended with facts happening to myself, or soldiers just over the hill ... with 150 color pictures of Nam combat.
These were times that defined men's souls; times that set the foundation and tenor for all life to come, eternally affecting our FOREVER, as well as generations of lives surrounding our life. Vietnam was our delineating moment, after which, in Shakespeare's words, "Life is but a walking shadow."
This book will thrill you with heart-stopping action, fear and danger ... death floating in sweet-and-sour air ... but then, you don't want to live forever, do you?
Gary
Gary Jacobson
Webmaster of "Vietnam Picture Tour,"
http://namtour.com/namtour.html A walk in "tpark" grunts called Vietnam, with the 1st Air Cavalry on combat patrol. Experience chilling reality to leave the sweet and sour taste of "the Nam" pungent on your tongue, the smell of "the Nam" acrid in your nostrils, and textures of "the Nam" imbedded in you as though you were walking beside me in combat.
My poignant poems directory, pictures and artwork to show the essence and feeling of war on young "boys next door," http://namtour.com/nampoemsNpix.html
"Realm Of Poetry," http://dreamerzz.tripod.com/SiteMap.html Poems of love and romance, spirituality and meditation, Golden Oldies, comedy, Quests of the regal knight Richard Lionheart to the crusades and seeking the Holy Grail, dueling dragons, frolicking fairies, and comedy....and also links to my site of riding that bestial ogre called war...
at www.twincities.com Please subscribe to St. Paul Pioneer Press
On this Memorial Day, it is my great hope that you will take a few minutes of your time to reflect on what an honor it is to live in our great country and remember the men and women in our nation's armed services - those who are willing to give the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedoms as Americans.
