25th April is Anzac Day in Australia. It commemorates the 26,111 Australian casualties, including 8,141 deaths, when young men were sent to their deaths in the Gallipoli campaign of World War 1, along with forces from New Zealand, the start of the Anzac tradition. This figure doesn’t include those who lost their lives from other countries involved in the campaign
Supposedly Australia came of age of a nation on the date of the landings at although I have never quite understood why the slaughter and crippling injuries of a nation’s youth in a senseless battle can be seen as any cause for celebration. Nevertheless, we remember and respect those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, but we do not worship a war fought for the redivision of territory among the Great Powers of the time.
There is magic riding the Divine Unseen in this wild, swirling world of ours.
But also blowing on the winds and eddies
the grief, pain, suffering and whispers
of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice of lives lost
in pain, fear and terror on the battlefields of the past
and whose spirits now ride the wild galactic winds among the stars.
These voices do not die – they blow in the fierce winds,
weave into the breezes
and whisper their losses and reasons for losses
Into the hearts and souls of those who can hear the
nuances of magic
to inspire those whose soul music
is love, kindness and a commitment to a world with no more wars.
