Posted in #NaPoWriMo2014, England, Family

#NaPoWriMo Day TwentyFive – “Dear Sir…”

Posted on by Charlie Alford

Todays prompt was inspired by my other interest in researching my family history. The journey took me and my dad to the New Forest where we found the church my great great great grandparents were married (and presumably) buried in. I remember sitting in the churchyard thinking about what I would say to them if I could…

 

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Dear Sir

Looking out from St Andrews

last May – it was a lovely day

the sky brushed in shades of blue

we’d been wandering the forest

studying Landford – tracing

you – on an ancestral quest.

We found you on this country hill

reaching up into the heavens

coated in yellow daffodils.

The world you knew is history

the young’uns migrated to the Smoke

why it’s all a mystery…

But, here stands the same ol’ church

of course in your time it was new

much like that weary silver birch.

Are you in the breeze about these stones?

Listening to my quiet whispers

as I ponder this place – your home.

Do you know we are related?

I’m your grand daughter’s grand daughter

and wanted to say hello – albeit belated.

 

 

Author:

I like to think I'm a story teller. I love stories. I believe the world is filled with stories just waiting to be told and learned. I enjoy travelling down the road less travelled, with my iPhone and journal in each hand. Here you'll find all my poetic musings... Enjoy!

4 thoughts on “#NaPoWriMo Day TwentyFive – “Dear Sir…””

  1. Discovering our past and connecting with it is a great thing to do Charley. I felt your search for connection clearly. I live in the same house my great grandparents lived in, the same house I was raised in, I like that I have been able to maintain the family connection with this house. Excellent poem Charley, very well done.

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    1. I think about how it would feel to live in an environment with that sort of Rich History, Michael. That consistent physical surround. Familiar surfaces, yard and those marks on the door or wall that show how old you have grown. The carvings in the tree you put there when you were 10…

      I think it would be lovely. I had a very transient childhood, and that consistency is something I yearn for as I am older.

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  3. Sadly, I don’t know a great deal about my family history, none on my fathers side and a very little amount on my mothers side.

    This made me get a twinge of yearning for that knowledge… just a little.

    ML
    x

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Thanks for reading! What did you think?