Of Family Histories and Cemeteries

I have been thinking and writing of family and legacy lately. Over the past several years I have agonized over and rewritten the first poem many times. I think it is now an honest and fitting tribute to my family, going back for as many generations as I am aware of. The second poem needs no explanation; ’tis what ’tis.

ONE AMERICAN FAMILY 
a work in progress 

A grandson asks about family, 
an assignment for school. 
Our line is not illustrious,  
I tell him, but we endure. 
 
We are grocers and tailors, 
Great Lakes sailors, 
furniture makers, coal miners,  
salesmen and secretaries, 
a real estate broker, 
Cook County jail guard,  
poets, drummers and storytellers. 
 
We do not glory in our past, 
unsure what to make of the Ulsterman 
hiding beneath his mother’s skirt 
to escape the Crown’s press gang, 
and we ignore rumors of a Virginian 
who owned the land  
and those who cleared it. 
 
With few scoundrels and fewer saints, 
we have no riches to squander 
nor fortunes to hoard. 
We are not known for valor 
but will fight when we must. 
There are no ministers in our line— 
a grandmother’s prayer unanswered. 
We thank God when God is good 
but hold grudges when God is cruel. 

When you come upon photos 
of momentous events 
and those who made them possible, 
we’ll be in the background; 
nearby, but not in the front row. 
Skyrockets briefly light the sky 
but disappear just as quickly; 
we will be in the background 
of the next photo, too. 
 
Let that be our legacy, 
that we endure.
Others shine more brightly
or sink to deeper depths,
but we endure.
Steady as she goes,
the Great Lakes sailor said,
and we endure.

---

POET
Fairplains Cemetery, Grand Rapids

Don’t shake my ashes into the wind,
or slip them into the river nearby.
Bury them here with my ancestors,
in this place where I was born

and place a small stone here,
carved only with my name,
the span of my life
and one short word

so a descendant one day
might sit with me here,
wondering of my life
while pondering their own.

---

My book, SLOW RIVERS, can be ordered through your local bookstore or online via bookshop.org. (ISBN 979-8-218-43822-7)

---

Subscribe to be notified of new posts.
There is no cost and your information will not be shared.

Joseph Neely, all rights reserved.