I am enclosing this poem because in May we are going to visit Rouen, France, where Joan of Arc was put to death for heresy.

COURAGE

What made Pelayo's feat so great (It was Pelayo who started the reconquest in Spain 718 AD)
When Covadonga would not yield?
What is it that decides the fate
On any given battle field?

Physical strength well has it's part
In every conflict that may be,
But what resides within the heart
Will determine finality.

French troops were inspired by Joan of Arc
To overcome much greater odds.
When left alone without her spark,
They stumbled over paltry clods.

Columbus dared the ocean blue
In his three motley caravels;
Looking for India's morning dew
Across the sea's treacherous swells.

Men such as Sir Walter Raleigh,
Unafraid of great risks and scorn
Were pron to look beyond the sea
Where new colonies might be born.

Was Cortes right in his bold feat
To subjugate a land and race?
Once on the shore, thoughts of retreat
Were soon to vanish into space.

Did Cuahutemoc reserve the right
To see a people mostly destroyed
Because of a commitment to fight
Against such odds that were employed.

Mary, Queen of Scots would not confess
To all the things that had been said.
Suffering imprisonment and duress
She yielded not, thus lost her head.

Sir Thomas Moore would not submit
Though ordered by royal decree
To compromise, so he might sit
In grace with king and thus go free.
(VerNon A. Bingham)
Started January 1994 to March 1995