Vintage Colorado Poetry
Poem of the Week
August 15, 2005


60th
Anniversary
of

V-J Day


V
ictory in Japan Day
August 15, 1945
Caroline Bancroft's "Miners' Church -- Christmas 1945" proves a reminder of what V-J Day, August 15, meant to Americans those sixty years ago.

Miss Bancroft is most remembered for "Bancroft booklets," her pocket-sized histories of Colorado mining towns. 
   Miners' Church -- Christmas 1945

We must not falter now that victory's won;
But tense our muscles strong as pioneers
Who built this Cross in by-gone fighting years.
A magnet strong enough to pull vast hordes
Across a continent where dangers dogged
Each oxen step -- and history was jogged
Into an age of fabulous rewards.

But does some Christmas message wait us here
High on a granite hill with mines now dead
And caving in?  The spire still lives to shed
Its joy --- on V-J Day the bell tolled clear.
I pulled its rope, heart-full, and do again
To tell of "Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men."

                         
--Caroline Bancroft


Reprinted from:
Timberlines.
Winter 1945-1946.  (Volume 9, No. 1)
The Colorado Poetry Fellowship, Denver.
Copyright (c) 1946.
Fair Use.
Vintage Colorado Poetry would
welcome hearing from the Estate of
Caroline Bancroft.   
Forty-Eight Stars. Public Domain.
Courtesy:  World War II in Color.
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