Quote of the Week

“We are Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

In Flanders fields.”

- Dr. John McCrae

A medical doctor born in Guelph, Ontario, poet Dr. John McCrae is most well-known for writing the poem, “In Flanders Fields”. During WW1, McCrae was serving as a field doctor in the trenches near Ypres, Belgium, in an area known as Flanders. According to Veterens Canada’s website (www.veterans.gc.ca): The day before he wrote his famous poem, one of McCrae's closest friends was killed in the fighting and buried in a makeshift grave with a simple wooden cross. Wild poppies were already beginning to bloom between the crosses marking the many graves. Unable to help his friend or any of the others who had died, John McCrae gave them a voice through his poem. It was the second last poem he was to write.