6 June 1

What a magnificently beautiful day in London!

                                    70 degrees with floating clouds
                                     Sun shadow on the brim
                                     Of a trim poet in front of the Globe
                                     Would you like a poem, I ask?
                                     For he's writing on demand poetry
                                     And I know no one has given one in return.
                                     As usual, my brash accent silences him.
                                     So cheers to you, my shy bard.
                                     Sometimes it is hard to receive poetry
                                     When you're soaking up sun at 70.


The list of stops today included the Churchill War Rooms under Whitehall, the Horse Guards grounds where the 2012 Olympic sand volleyball occurred, The Clarence for lunch, the Millennium Bridge, the Tate International Gallery of Modern Art, a water taxi back to Westminster, 5:00 evening prayers at Westminster Abbey, dinner at Lord of the Moon, and an evening with the Beating Retreat performance featuring the Household Guards of the Queen, a marching band from the U.S., and a band from the U.A.E., and a Horse Guard from Jordan.  Whew.

Highlight of the day?  I can't pick.  Here are two pictures about Winston Churchill's involvement in WW1.

The failure at the Dardanelles is significant, for that's where poet Rupert Brooke died.  Here's his famous poem:

The Soldier

BY RUPERT BROOKE

If I should die, think only this of me:

      That there’s some corner of a foreign field

That is for ever England. There shall be

      In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;

A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,

      Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam;

A body of England’s, breathing English air,

      Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

      A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

            Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;

      And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,

            In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

That's it for now.  Cheers!