TEARS FROM THE DEEP

I went to Hawai'i with my family the first week of August and got to visit the Arizona Memorial as well as visit with 3 of our Pearl Harbour Survivors.  After seeing the Memorial (and in spite of the rudeness of certain other visitors!) another poem began rolling around in my head. See, there's still oil seeping up, one drop at a time, from the hull of the Arizona. My sister mentioned it and I told her it was the Arizona weeping for those lost on December 7th.  That's when the poem got triggered and, a few days later, was written. That one, small drop of oil that continually weeps from the Arizona where she rests are her tears from the Deep.

TEARS FROM THE DEEP

Tears are still wept, tho' the heart's made of steel,

For men nigh forgot tho' a Nation should feel.

They died in a war, tho' no battle fought they,

On what became known as an Infamous Day.

Tears from the Deep, tho' the heartbeat is cold,

For valorous men who will never grow old.
Entombed in the dark, by water enshrined,

Stood ready 'gainst all, by Freedom defined.

     Tho' many have come, so few shed a tear.

     They call to us, now, do the whisper you hear?
     They are the reason this Nation stood fast!
     The weeping, so soft, do you hear it at last?

Tears are still wept to help us recall,
Tho' few still remember they gave us their all;
From way down below, to the Oceans' safe keep,
Seeping up for reminders are Tears from the Deep.