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Nov 2019
PER ARDUA AD ASTRA...THROUGH STRUGGLES TO THE STARS.

The worse thing I
did in the war

was...to survive
when others...didn't.

Always the "Why me..?"

Others...better men than I
deserved better.

Every day is bitter.
A life lost.

I breathe the air
that they would never....

for them there was
no tomorrow.

I survived the war.

Find it harder
to survive my self.

The dead crowd 'round me
wanting to taste today's sunlight

with their eyes
that accuse.

"Macte nova virtute,..."
they mock me with schoolboy Latin

"...sic itur ad astra!
they say and say.

The VIrgil falling
from my hand.
***

Macte nova virtute, sic itur ad astra.

( Blessings on your young courage, boy; that's the way to the stars.)

Virgil - Aeneid Book 9.

"Men die as if a God had blown a dandelion clock...it;s seeds scattering like souls lost in time."


Per ardua ad astra is a Latin phrase meaning "through adversity to the stars"or "through struggle to the stars" that is the official motto of the Royal Air Force and other Commonwealth air forces such as the Royal Australian Air Force and Royal New Zealand Air Force, as well as the Royal Indian Air Force until 1947. The Royal Canadian Air Force used it until 1968, when it adopted the motto sic itur ad astra, a similar phrase meaning "such is the pathway to the stars." It dates from 1912, when it was adopted by the newly formed Royal Flying Corps.
Donall Dempsey
Written by
Donall Dempsey  Guildford
(Guildford)   
68
 
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