I was looking to publish something of my own for Remembrance Day, but I found this sonnet by poet-priest Malcolm Guite. Lest we forget.
As we approach Remembrance Sunday I am reposting this sonnet about the two minutes silence, which was first published in my book Sounding the Seasons. I’m posting it a couple of days early so that any one who wishes to, can use it in services or events on this Remembrance Sunday.
So here is how it came to be written. On Remembrance Day I was at home listening to the radio and when the time came for the Two Minutes Silence. Suddenly the radio itself went quiet. I had not moved to turn the dial or adjust the volume. There was something extraordinarily powerful about that deep silence from a ‘live’ radio, a sense that, alone in my kitchen, I was sharing the silence with millions. I stood for the two minutes, and then, suddenly, swiftly, almost involuntarily, wrote this sonnet. You can hear the sonnet, as I recorded…
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A Pilgrim in Narnia 
Belated thanks for this! The Dutch have two minutes’ silence, too – on 4 May, commemorating the fallen on the anniversary of the end of the Second World War, here.
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Is May 4 a day of liberation?
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Here are some relevant bits from Wikipedia for 4 May 1945: “German surrender at Lüneburg Heath: At Bernard Montgomery’s headquarters […], Wehrmacht forces in northwestern Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark surrendered to the Allies, effective at 8:00 a.m. on May 5.” And, “On 5 May 1945 the Canadian General Charles Foulkes and the German Commander-in-Chief Johannes Blaskowitz reached an agreement on the capitulation of German forces in the Netherlands in Hotel de Wereld in Wageningen. One day later the capitulation document was signed in the auditorium of Wageningen University located next door.” 4 May has become the day of solemn remembrance, and 5 May, ‘Liberation Day’, the day of festive rejoicing.
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It’s cool that Canada was helpful!
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The village where I live at the moment was liberated by Canadians!
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