THE WALL

HEART VERSES OF FAYE SIZEMORE

A Sunset and A Prayer

I followed the Sun and cold shadows into the woods today. I listened
to the river,
the Crow, the Hawk....and sounds of life and death and soldier
history. I listened once more to a War...so long ago, and it asked
me to tell you of a place to rest your soul, a place to touch with
your heart.

It is a place that gives love, a place that whispers to poets, then
blesses them with words to tell. It is a place where we surrender
our heart, and our soul, forever, to those who gave everything, and
received, nothing.

Go there my friends! Go to the Wall!

....and Welcome Home...to all.

©LJKlaiber December72002

The Wall does call it`s choices
with fifty eight thousand voices

From it does come a siren song
Those who hear will come along

It`s song is haunting
and filled with longing

There are those who will hear
and always hold it dear

Shame upon those who forgot
And do remember them not

They are calling to this day
Listen to what the voices say...

'We stood for you..for a moment
come stand along with us.
Never forget our sacrifice
nor ever betray our trust'

©Faye Sizemore October2002

Shelter Of Angels

Resting
quiet and alone
within stone
you speak
only

and I touch your face
carved
in

no more pain
no war
anymore

everything lives
upon this wall

in the shelter of angels
there is no more dying
anymore.

©LJKlaiber....11 8 02

For Veteran`s Day 2002

Holding Lady Liberty

I noticed her
standing
two panels down,
face uplifted...!

Bright silver hair,
...and tearful.
............somebodys Mother
...perhaps!

I was alone beside the Wall
touching memory,
...touching agony
in my heart.

She was still there,
standing alone,
as I started to leave
...and I said,...........
"May I help you?"

Her eyes fell
as crystal,
shattered again,
.............and again.

"That is my Son....,
There!....
Up there!
I cannot reach his name!"

So,
I lifted Lady Liberty
and she shook in my arms,

...her trembling hands
upon his name.

As she thanked me,
...I held her close,
just once again.

Then we went
our separate ways.

©Lou J.Klaiber November182002

Basic Black

I come here alone,
knowing none
unsure of what I will find

Looking up
and over my shoulder
I see him

I don't know him.
So many people here; still
he seems apart ... lost

I look again ...
slowly lifting my eyes
until they are locked on him

I reach to touch him
he feels cold at first ...
but warms under my hands.

When I take my hands away
I find they are cold.
I warm them with my tears

With me stand many
touching cold black granite
warming a name with their fingers.

Is he someone they knew ... loved ?
I didn't know him ...
but someone did.

©9 November 2002 ~ Lucille J.Biscaglio

For all those whose names are on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, all those who served beside them and all those who knew and loved them. May they be warmed by our never ending gratitude and remembrance.

50,000 names on the Wall

So many people,
Who Gave their All.

Fought and fell to keep alive,

Our Freedom, Our Decency,
Our Never Ending Pride.

50,000 names and more,
Names of people,
Who's families forever mourn.

The loss of those so kind, and caring,
So many souls that died while wearing,
The Pride of our country,
The RED, WHITE and BLUE.

50,000 names on the Wall,
I salute you.

Danielle N. Calhoun
© November 3, 2002

There is a place that someday I must go
A place that is Sacred and Hallowed

A place of pain and of healing,
A place where Soldiers go to find their Bro

There is a place that someday I must go
A place where there resides Soldiers Souls

Someday when courage I find
Someday I must make that walk

I must make that walk to find a name of mine
Someday when the courage I find

I have a gift that you left for me
Mommy said you called it Cuddles and it was for me

I have a very ,very ,very tattered and torn teddy bear
One ear is gone and I’ve carried him for so long

You left before I was born, you died in a far away land
I have your medals and badges and your funny green hat

Someday when I am brave, someday when I have a soldiers courage
Some day I will touch that cold Black Granite and touch your name

Someday when I am brave, then I will make that walk
Then I will find your name and then to you Cuddles I will give

To give you Peace and comfort as he has given me
Someday When I am brave, I will make that walk

I will forever and always be a child of Viet Nam

Someday when I am brave, Someday when I am brave
Someday when I am brave, Some day that walk I will make

Undeclared War

Row upon row
Name upon name
They all died in Vietnam
In an undeclared war
What a shame...

There are ten Sizemores
listed there on the Wall...
Casualties of an undeclared war
They answered their countries call
They did their patriotic chore

Are they kin
It matters not ...
All are brothers or sisters
under the skin...

©Faye Sizemore 2002

Forever Thankful

Back in nineteen sixty- nine
It was a long and lonely time

He had always wanted to be a Marine
Then Vietnam came on the scene

Nothing I could do but stay home and cry
War is horrible and so many soldiers die

For the war to be over soon
Daily I would pray and hope

At last You sent him home, not whole
But alive and able to cope

Thank you God above
For sparing the one I love

I still give thanks to You... with my all...
For his name is not carved upon... The Wall

Twenty years The Wall has been there
In pilgrimages because they care
In sun shine and rain the people came
In twenty more will it be the same

When this generation is gone
Will the wall of names be alone
Will our brave men be forgotten
Only to be names carved in stone

We must pass onto others their story
Keep on telling of their glory
Never let the future generations forget
So that forever they shall be honored yet

There is nothing as overpowering
As the realization that The Wall
Etches fifty eight- thousand plus

Names of those who gave their all. . .

Imagine all of these soldiers
All of these lives erased
Gone forever and ever

Without even a trace...

All these gone from our lives
All these lost to their families
Imagine if you can their suffering

Truly, is it not overpowering...

Pain...Tears...and Rain

He had visited the Wall especially on a day of rain
Because he had heard stories of the visitor`s tears
And he thought he could not stand the pain
He knew he`d give way though it had been years

The Wall shone in the rain with an angelic light
A visit in the rain was better than a visit at night
The raindrops were running down all the panels on the Wall
With the raindrops on visitors faces tears shouldn`t show at all

But the agony in the visitors eyes was a dead give away
He might as well have went to the Wall on a sunny day
He saw the daughters,wifes,sisters,the sons,the mothers
He saw the eyes of the friends, the eyes of the brothers

At the Wall a vigil was being kept
At last he finally knew that he was not alone
.................As in the rain he wept

Talking To The Wall

It's a wonder people come here who didn't know your names
Even some who burned your flag in desecrating flames
They say that time's a healer and I guess that must be so
Though we still wonder where they were these many years ago

It's a wonder that the grass grows here from tears that salt the earth
Shed by eyes that hold no answers, but question still the worth
This magnificent black monument can not reflect your deeds
It shows but what divisiveness and indecision breeds

This testimony to your lives is here, forever to be kept
And witness my friends, in a recent war, no prisoners were left
We believe your sacrifices lent aid to that success
And if a war should come again, then we'll demand no less

Times now are no more peaceful than they were back then
Seems the lesson's never learned, we always fight again
I wonder if a day will come to lay down swords and guns
Before the world awakes at midnight to a thousand rising suns?

It's a wonder people come here and leave here wondering why
Perhaps to say "I'm sorry" or just to say "Good-bye"
When our tours here have ended, and we've reached Heaven's dome
There will be no need for wondering when you bid us...
"Welcome Home!"

©Randy Richmond June 6, 1996

TO ROBERT CHARLES OHARA

SP/5…Army…Iowa…Vietnam Feb. ’69….these were four things I saw that we had in common as I sorted through the many red bracelets honoring POWs and MIAs of the Vietnam war. I didn’t know you but these similarities sealed the deal for me and I bought it. Some of the purchase price combined with hundreds of thousands more being bought helped pay for your search…so I’m told.

I wore that bracelet for many years to honor you and to remember you not only for myself, but many others as well who would often ask an explanation of it. It was always there on my wrist 24/7, through years of toil in a foundry, showers, thousands of casts into my favorite fishing holes, to church, and to many veterans’ events. It finally started showing the wear so I replaced it with a ‘new’ one, a little fancier, wider…pretty snifty! Still have the old one but in ’96 when I came to visit you and the others at the wall, I left the newer one on the arm of one of the ‘three soldiers’ statues. I really can’t say why I did that… just seemed right to me at the time I guess.

They say your chopper went down in a pretty dense and hot area over there. They tried and failed for days to find any sign of you and the guys who were with you.
Your fate…the fate of all of those who’ve been missing these many years has been an ache in your brothers' hearts for a very very long time.

You can probably imagine my surprise and my joy when two days ago, while watching the local news, I heard that your entire crew was finally found! After 33 years! I still have goosebumps.

Your folks are there with you now but I can tell you that I heard all ten of your brothers
and sisters were there at Arlington when they laid you to rest among the many other heroes. Your family and friends called you Chuck. I saw the memorial for you in your hometown of ‘Lost Nation’…seems like a very inappropriate and ironic name for a town that counts men such as you who have given all to ensure that a nation was NOT lost.

Anyway Chuck, my heart sings that you have found your way back among your brothers. Back to the land of the free…home of the brave. God willing, I’ll be visiting the wall again one day and when I do, I’ll be checking in on you and bringing that red bracelet to leave with you there.

Welcome home Chuck! Welcome home!

©RandyRichmond Nov. 9, 2002