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Full Text of West Virginia Poet Laureate Marc Harshman’s Poem Written for Dedication of Soldiers and Sailors Monument May 27, 2019 in Downtown Wheeling

(Editor's Note: West Virginia Poet Laureate Marc Harshman of Wheeling wrote and read this poem for the rededication of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in downtown Wheeling on Monday.)

Whose Lives Live On

The monument was silent, but that silence was impressive and eloquent. -- G.B. Jones, Post Commander, Holliday Post of the GAR

It is fitting to stand here today, head bowed

below this stone remembering both blood and honor.

Remembering once, we remember again

women and men who for us the living risked their dying,

men and women who still go away with risk

to make our land and all lands brave and blessed.

Observe here the sailor, foot on his coil of rope,

the soldier, in his kepi, foot on his field of stones.

Observe their faces and that of Lady Liberty above,

read in them the message we may still read today:

"no menace in either attitude or expression...

full of majesty, stern but not unkind," looking towards hope.

Imagine now that gone century, imagine here

standing twenty-thousand who roar their thanks . . .

thanks for all who sacrificed for city, state, and nation

that we might remain one nation united and free.

Here, fife and drum corps upon this plinth, flags

all round, trumpets blaring, voices of children

and veterans uplifted in songs: America and

The Star Spangled Banner and more, many more.

Look around you, from every window and rooftop,

hear how the shouts rose up from lumber piles and boxcars.

Scarcely an inch of spare space below, standing proud

despite downpours and drizzle, celebration reigned,

parades commenced: brigades of police smoking their stogies,

fire engines shining like crimson mirrors, their hoses snowy-white.

William Leighton, that day's poet, sagely declaimed:

"So may the future days come nobly . . ."

and beside this granite and limestone cenotaph praised

the glories of liberty and generosity.

What a day that was, a larger crowd may never

have assembled here either before or since.

What a day--this monument covered in evergreens

and banks of brilliant flowers, and everywhere

flags flying but none so poignant as the battle flags

from the late war, most real of all,

singed with shot and cannon fire, burnt and torn,

ripped and bloodied, but still flying, still proud.

We will, then, remember that day, and this day

rekindle a passion and devotion to all that's good.

We will, then, honor still those gone before so that

mountaineers might always be free.

We will, then, I pray, from this day again forward

pledge to honor by this somber stone with voices uplifted

what was done and what must yet be done, and so

praise the past, savor the present, protect the future.

The monument may be silent, the beating of our hearts

unheard, but let our words revere with eloquence those

whose lives live on in us, in all that would keep us free:

montani semper liberi . . . montani semper liberi . . .

Mountaineers are always free!

-- Marc Harshman, Poet Laureate of West Virginia

Poet's Notes:

∫ The quotation in the sixth stanza is from The Wheeling Intelligencer, May 31, 1883

∫ The quotation in the 14th stanza is from William Leighton's poem, "The Price of the Present Paid by the Past," private printing, Wheeling, 1883.