The Fields of Grass.......and stone.....

National Cemetery in Elmira, New York

Fields of Grass & Stone

Cold steel brought me here,

Among my fellow soldiers

And their loved ones tears.

How simple and yet so cold,

Long white lines, markers bold

Soldiers buried young and old.

Honor is a fleeting thing,

Thought as gold in life’s small ring,

Never giving thought to death,

Now I lay with all the rest.

The Sadness of Oriskany...

The place where General Herkimer laid directing his troops

The sadness of that day seems to leap from the quiet air... the spot now holy in the annals of war.  But what of his comrades the Indian friends... whose presence is forgotten by local lore.

Arise dead soldiers unite as one 

to lift war's curse before the sun.

To mark a spot on sacred ground 

where fighting spoke words so profound.

Nothing solved, nothing gained, 

by war's red horror and blood red stain.

For ages and ages hence from now,

no spot will stand not even  bough!