Beforeword: This poem is a collaboration with the folk song “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” from the 1960s which carries a powerful anti-war message. The song poignantly illustrates the futility of war—girls pick flowers, they find partners, the men go to war, and eventually, they return only to graveyards covered in those same flowers. With over 50 armed conflicts raging in our world today, when will we ever learn: all that remains in the end is, loss?!

Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?

Girls with their tender hearts plucked them
Bending to the earth, sending dreams towards the sky
Gathering the petals of innocence
Weaving hope into the garlands of their dreams

Where have the young girls gone, long time passing?

Their laughter lost in the silent fields of grief
Their dreams and aspirations woven into the wind, carried on whispers
Where hands once clasped in promise
Now hold nothing but memories and fading scent

Where have all the young men gone, long time passing?

From the tender embrace of youth, to the stern call of duty
They marched in lines, with hearts beating strong
Into the fury of battles, into the silence of fields
Leaving behind only death, only regret

Where have all the soldiers gone, long time passing?

Their songs now silenced, their dreams laid to rest
In the cold embrace of graveyards
Where flowers bloom anew, their petals bright and tender
Covering the earth with the soft whisper of remembrance

Where have all the graveyards gone, long time passing?

In fields where life begins anew, flowers bloom in their stead
The cycle of loss in a dance of futility
Girls still pick flowers, men still march to war
And flowers still cover the graves in the end

Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?

Gone to graveyards, every one,
When will we ever learn, when will we ever learn?
That flowers and dreams, loss and tears
Are all that remain in the end

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In creative solidarity, Dee