Poem for Lieut. Alfred Ryland Howard

Eugenia Hunt, sister of Alfred Ryland Howard, , wrote a poem that she said he carried into  the Battle of St. Lo that took his life.

Jeana wrote this at the bottom of the poem:

This was in my brother Ryland’s pocket, when he was shot down by the Germans at the battle of St Lo. He was a liaison pilot – and aide to General John Matthew Devine. He had 12 men under him, and refused to send them up on reconnaissance without him, even though his superior advised against it. This was on July 4, 1944.

Newspaper article about Captain Ryland Howard

Communion

I can embrace the storms

Which blow,

And floods that hurl themselves

Across the dry earth.

I walk near God and

Feel his being stir my heart,

And know that when I’m dead

I shall not lie there,

But instead

Shall rise to suffer or be one

With the pulsing soul

Who strides eternity!

I know that when I sink

My hands within the earth

I can feel the pulse of God,

Who stirs the loam and

Quickens seed within the sod.

I know that when the rain

Falls fast and hard,

The silver drops are spilled

From out the hand of God.

I know that when a man

Lies broken

And life fast flows

The waiting mire —

That should he think

“My God, fill me with they strength!”

So earthly foe could

Take away his blood.

I know, I know, I know.

These things are in my being.

Always have been,

Always will be.

And you, and you, and you

Can talk a thousand years

Concerning the scientific

Impossibilities

That is not so!

But I have felt God,

And talked to Him.

And that is how I know.

 

communion-poem-by-eugenia-howard-hunt