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at the following url
http://genealogy2.com/poetry/poetryandroses.html
MY ANCESTOR
GRAND MOTHER
I search for you yet do not even know your name
I press on praying my efforts will prove fruitful
the records do not list you or the other women who
have lived and loved and laughed, gave birth, and died,
the records perpetrate the myth that you were never here
but I stand whole and bare my soul
and vow to find you as I live
I search for you in old records, in churches, at the Embassy,
in small dimly lit rooms
in the back of obscure libraries and archives
and pour over barely readable handwritten ledgers
with magnifying glass and flashlight
I live on mainly toast these days
there isn’t time for meals or much sleep
feeling as I always do, on the very brink of discovery
Perhaps THIS will be the day I find the one
seemingly insignificant clue, which will lead me to you
although I did not find you listed in the Census Records
I am not deterred, you may turn up yet,
on an Immigration or Naturalization list somewhere perhaps,
or maybe tucked away inside some bank of vital statistics,
long forgotten like so many others,
your name having become lost over the long years
Your name could be lying even now
amidst the millions of documents stored and locked away
safeguarded in the bowels of a giant warehouse
all stopped up from apathetic crowds
who have long ceased their visits
your precious name, lying just inside
a myriad of records packed in tight, packed in to stay
never guessing I would come
© Sarah Elizabeth Rose
MANY BRANCHES
The Seasons Change / the years fly by
Blowing winds scatter branches from family trees
Sometimes to the farthest reaches of the Earth
where they remain unnoticed for centuries
Beneath the eaves of the mighty branches
the seeds continue generating life
as season follows season and years erase the tracks
of all who've come before
Though most are ordinary seeds, every now and
then a superbly unique seed reaches fruition
containing genealogy imprinting / producing
an overwhelming longing to untangle the roots
Questions flow through sleepless nights
and wakeful dreams where names dates,
and places are whispered,
and trust and patience are imparted
The painstaking journey then begins and once begun
no matter how far / no matter the time or energy spent
the ancient paths will be retraced, and roots
untangled, and names revealed all along the way
At the end of the intense search a surprise awaits;
A new beginning / another search /end / beginning
for each tree has many branches
and the wind is often full of mischief
© 2003 Sarah Elizabeth Rose
SILK RIBBONS
Sweet infant on your special day; wearing the new
gown of multi layers of lace and fine silk ribbons /
loving gift from Grandma carrying generations of stories
connecting you to ancestors long since gone yet still alive
Wrapped in loving, cherished memories;
Generations of stitches connecting the newest leaf
to the family tree. Silk ribbons, first
as a wedding gift for great grand mother when
Times were very hard. She wove them into her
bridal dress and insists it was that which brought her
a long and happy marriage / She later used the
silk ribbons for Mama’s trousseau.
Next they were transformed with love
into the beautiful special infant gown
you wear today / coming down to you with all it’s
generations of love, stories, and symbolism
How fine you look in your lovely outfit
with silk ribbons weaving highways north and south
Wearing generations of your
family’s history on your tiny shoulders
What huge responsibility for one so small
Ancient laced stories of history repeatedly
being passed down to the next generation
entrusted to you now, for safe keeping
© Sarah Elizabeth Rose
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