My Dad Died On Monday

My Dad Died on Monday, after a battle with cancer, he fought in Vietnam and loved animals, especially eagles since he was in the 101st airborne "screaming eagles". I did not know this man, and do not have very good memories of him since he was an alcoholic. I feel I need to say something at the funeral that is next week, is there a good poem about an eagle flying or anythign like that, that would be approriate.

I know your Dad was an alcoholic, but soldiers in Vietnam (like in all wars) sometimes see things or do things that they later find hard to live with. Your Dad, for example, may well have been involved in hand to hand fighting, and may have had to kill people at close quarters. That may well have caused his alcoholism.

Maybe, rather than finding a poem about an eagle, you could use a poem about war. Something suitable for someone who fought and suffered.

This is a poem that we are using for my father's service. He was a pilot so we felt it was really appropriate for him. I don't know who wrote it, but hope it might help you.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds,--and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless falls of air...
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor eer eagle flew--
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high, untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.