This morning
before dawn
the alarm woke me
and I accompanied my daughter Elsa
down to the dawn service.
Never before had I thought of going
yet sometimes your children dictate
the state of play
and Elsa was singing onstage
in the cold in her uniform.
I assembled in the dark
as the ceremony began
and was struck by the number
of people paying respects
to the living and the dead
Previously I had thought of Gallipoli
as a failed battle
evidence of the careleseness of generals
the madness of war
and the killing of young men.
22 years ago
I travelled to Gallipoli
and stood where Attaturk
manned the machine guns
looking down the steep hills.
An impossible battle
2000 aussies killed on the first day
8000 in 8 months before
they retreated
defeated.
madness to even contemplate.
There in the dark
surrounded by strangers
we were reminded
that our freedom is paid in blood
by those that make the ultimate sacrifice.
I was struck with the thought that
even though man fights his own nature
and wars are eternal.
lest we forget is more about
the triumph of the human spirit
The dawn service is about human respect
its about standing together
believing in something bigger
than ourselves
and the fight against tyranny.
ANZAC day remembers the fallen
counts the endless lives lost over time
both ours and our enemies
and isn't so much about us vs them
its really about us.
As the dawn broke in the east
and I looked at the yawning kids onstage
and the sleepy faces around me
the little kids and
the old veterans
I remembered some
Gerard Manley Hopkins
learnt at school
in a time mostly forgotten
but still dear to my heart.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
Lest we forget.
