I’ve been around a good few years, was born of World War One
A child of enmity and hate, of bomb, of blood, of gun
Lord knows there should have been no need to bear a child like me
I should have been there all the time, for peace should always be
Yes, they call me Remembrance Day, to recall days of war
To honour those who died that way, on a far off distant shore
To remember broken families, to pray that wars will cease
And the world should pray together for world-wide love and peace.
No-one wants to see again the pain of a war-torn world
See their young in mortal combat, as into war they’re hurled
To read the daily lists of those missing, wounded, killed
Or have their family torn apart, and dreams left unfulfilled.
We’ve seen no good of man-made war, there is no earthly gain
No people profit from a fight, but millions suffer pain
The pain of losing friends that way is one no man should know
If peace can overtake this world there’ll be no earthly foe.
We’re proud of those from days gone by, who offered all they had
Who suffered bombs and guns and hell far from their Mum and Dad
“For God, for King, and Country” that’s what the plaques now read
But if they could talk to us today, it may be different indeed.
If we could ask them why they went, why they suffered, why they died
We’d understand if they went all quiet, even cried
But these days we can’t imagine what they went through, or their pain
Only pray that we will never ever see wars like those again.
And so today we honour the end of every war
We hope for that outbreak of peace to last forever more
For wars have been and they have gone and so we have today
One minute’s silence because of me, for I am Remembrance Day.
Jeff Cook