| Your BPO honors all who serve and cherishes the memory of those who gave everything |
| This Memorial Day, the BPO musicians, staff and board would like to express our sincere gratitude to all serve and have served this great country. Please enjoy our video, our musical gift to the sevicemen and women of Western New York and beyond, featuring your BPO and the quintessentially American sound of the “Corral Nocturne” from Aaron Copland’s 4 Dance Episodes from Rodeo. Many thanks to our partners John Radens and the Buffalo History Museum for providing these moving images of veterans from Western New York, past and present. |
| In Flanders Fields by John McCrae |
| The poem, “In Flanders Fields,” was written during the First World War by Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae. He was inspired to write it on May 3, 1915, after presiding over the funeral of a fellow soldier and friend. The original handwritten text appears below. |
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| In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. |