WINONA, Minn. – Memorial Day will be marked Monday by music and readings at Lake Park. The Municipal Band will perform the national anthem, “America,” and military themed music beginning at 10:30. Organizer Jim Lukaszewski of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #1287 said readings will include the poem “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae and “Answer to Flanders Fields” by Ella Osborn. Sponsors with VFW include American Legion Post 9, Although Memorial Day has roots in the American Confederacy, it has been celebrated 92 continuous years in Winona.

“In Flanders Fields”

John McCrae

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.

McCrae. The Canadian officer wrote the poem in the Second Battle of Ypres in Belgium in 1915 for the battlefield funeral of his friend Alex Helmer. McCrae himself died in 1918 of pneumonia near the end of the war.

Sousa. The martial bandmaster and composer John Philip Sousa immortalized McCrae’s  poem with music as “”In Flanders Fields, the Poppies Grow.”