Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts

Thursday, February 25, 2016

A Good Story

A Good Story
1/31/2016

Truly, the thing I love the most
Is a story.
A story well told -
Something few really appreciate --
Life stories
Are the things I love the most.
A life story is a sad thing to lose --
Pass it down,
Send it on,
So it won't be lost.
So tell me a good story -
One with hurt,
Pain,
Joy,
Laughter,
Love,
Sadness,
Anger,
Fear --
So I have a good story
And a piece -- of you --
After you leave.

The Storyteller - Lost History

The Storyteller - Lost History
2/25/2016

The Story of a person's life
Is honestly quite -- fleeting.
How easy it is to misplace or lose
To not find again - completely.

Though other's know -- small pieces
And parts of another's - life,
That is all --- just a chunk
Of someone else's strife.

Though we can shift through the dirt -
Dig through -- the memories
Trying to fit pieces together
In a single - crafted - story,

Like archaeologists -- we guess
Upon the meaning of the pottery.
A crucial piece is missing --
Our guesses are mere snobbery.

The other's thoughts are replaced,
We can only - guess - at what
Someone else may be thinking
And the - truth - of the matter is
That that really isn't adequate.

The Storyteller of that life is
The only - one - who can make it clear,
With no pieces missing, or shattered,
So we can hold that loved one dear.

The person who truly -- lived it --
It must be them - the Storyteller.
Because honestly who else can supply
A clear and detailed picture.

And without that precious knowledge
Of who you are and were - those left
Must uproot the flowers you planted
To find the remains you kept.


In Loving Memory of my Grandmother who recently passed away.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

The Gypsy and the Pilgrim

The Gypsy and the Pilgrim
4/3/2012

One summer
I spoke
With my Grandmother
And she told me stories
Of her time
As a child
With her sister
And father,
Who was an Italian Gypsy.
All I really recall
Where stories of a house
In the grass,
And playing with her sister,
Who she no longer knows,
Because one day
Her father disappeared,
Leaving her
And her sister
Behind.

But my Grandma also told me
About her adopted family,
And stories of their history.
Of how her adopted Grandmother
Met her adopted Grandfather
But they were both travelers
Going their separate ways.
They were not meant to be
Although they fell in love.
So when their children,
My great-grandmother
And great-grandfather,
Met by happen stance,
They fell in love
And righted the balance.
Then they adopted my Grandmother
Who birthed my father,
Who made me.

Though my Grandmother identifies
As an Italian Gypsy,
She was raised by a family
Who descended from Pilgrims.
Two vastly different peoples
But two similar ways.
Two families of travelers,
Two people who had no home.

But who am I?
A Gypsy or a Pilgrim?
Do I have Gypsy soul or not?
The answer?
Both…
I am Both.
I have a Gypsy soul
As well as
A European frame of mind.
I am a Gypsy and a Pilgrim.