A friend is staying @home in France (euroretreat.com) for a long winter stay right now.
She has been visiting the Normandy Beaches.
Her photos are extraordinary and soon, I hope to post a few here.
In the meantime, try this on for heart.
Vierville sur Mer
As it has always looked.
Tall stone walls of sun-bleached creme
Bending with each turn in the road
Urging one on.
Point du Hoc
As it has always been
Before
The darkness
Rest assured of itself,
Left bereft of life, the living.
What that this force does with our humanity;
Usurps the Soul
Morsel by brutal bleeding morsel
Until it breaks the spine of Spirit dwelling there.
Lets It swing from rafters
Dead to Mothers,
Lovers,
Children all.
St Mere Eglise
As it has always stood,
Today like any other
But for the thin veil
That breathes its fabric
Between the worlds
And gives rise
To not just the living memory
Of the fallen
But to the Ineffable;
Ever present,
The unending sorrow
And blinding light.
Ten thousand of my sons came that day
Braced to die.
Just that day alone.
Here.
Fused by Spirit unbroken,
Could do nothing but press on.
They fought.
They died.
There is but one light in us all.
It shines
Eternal in this soil, the sea,
And in time immemorial
With we
As witness
That it will not ever happen again.
And yet it does.