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Open Poetry #48
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Photographs - Ghosts Of The Past
| Open Poetry #48 |
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Photographs - Ghosts Of The Past |
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jwesley Member Rara Avis
since 2000-04-30
Posts 7563Spring, Texas 
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Photographs - Ghosts Of The Past I cherish the pictures of age, those that are black and white, sienna, yellowed, and streaked, because they take me back deep into the folds of my inception. And yet, I don't recognize anything, I remember nothing but what I've been told, and even that is fading now, as my own life becomes black and white, sienna, yellowed and streaked. I wonder if the eyes of my children, grand-children , and further down the line, will notice a loss of color, a fading of memory, and attempt to get the cast of age off photographs they've been shown, Like me, laboring over the lives of my past, trying to give them vibrance relevance, living color, to make them a part of my birth, not just faded snapshots of my past. Still, seventy-years later, I only know them as black and white, sienna, yellowed, and streaked ghosts, with whom I connect less, and less. Photographs - wordless effigies, without biographies, stories and anecdotes - forgotten relations that no one remembers, now. Black and white, sienna, yellowed, and streaked, and today, in full and vibrant color, but still . . . lifeless effigies without the words they need to live. © wesley james beard, jr. february 21, 2013 (Note: been spending a good bit of time clarifying and digitizing what photographs my family has and there are so many older ones that no one living, remembers, or can put names, relations to. Thats what prompted this piece. Hope it works without the explantion, but thought the explantion would, maybe, spark YOU to add written comments, names and so forth to your photographs. For the generations that follow YOU. j. |
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| © Copyright 2013 Wesley James Beard, Jr. - All Rights Reserved | |||
Victoria
since 2000-08-12
Posts 5869 |
I belong to ancestry and I have folders of relatives for my children. I found some photos on ancestry that other people had of my ancestors. I enjoyed reading this as I can relate. I just gave a big box of photos to my son who were related to my husband and as you said some we didnt know who they were. I received an email yesterday from someone in England about photos in a record office relating to my mother. Thanks for posting Jimmy. I think as we get older things like this all of a sudden matter. ~Victoria |
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JerryPat2 Member Laureate
since 2011-02-06
Posts 16975South Louisiana |
I hear you loud and clear, Jimmy, but "Photographs - Ghosts Of The Past" doesn't pertain to me. I was illegally adopted and was sixteen years old before I ever found out about it. I asked who my real parents were, but I was lied to at every turn. I come from a small town in Arkansas, and let me tell you that old saying about small towns can't keep secrets is baloney. Taylor, Arkansas kept the secret from me who my parents were, even when I asked people, point blank, like my favorite uncle. He looked me in the eye and said he promised my "adopted" mother he would never tell. Taylor has a population of around seven hundred, then and now. The whole town lied to me. In my memoirs, Misdemeanors & Felonies: A Memoir which I wrote for my children, the last sentence in the book was, "I still don't know who my mother and father was, if anyone who is reading this knows who they were I still want to know." So, as much as I would like to trace my ancestry, I simply cannot. ~*~ If they give you ruled paper write sideways . . . ~*~ |
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Alison
since 2008-01-27
Posts 9318Lumpy oatmeal makes me crazy! |
I have been spending time looking at my Mon's family album. There is scattered information among the pages - Sea Captains from another century, the old house that has been added on to through the generations. I don't know all the stories or who all the people are, but they give me a feeling of connection to my history. They help me see that we all live on in some form or another. I wish that there was more information on those pages, but I enjoy imagining the lives of the people and who they were. Thank you, Jimmy, for this poem. Alison |
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Honeybunch Member Rara Avis
since 2001-12-29
Posts 7115South Africa |
Oh, yes, Jimmy, it is the way of life isn't it. My children certainly don't look back now but I wonder if they will when they're older. I painstakingly prepared "this is your life" files for them up to the age of 21. Perhaps it was a waste of time - who knows? That being said, you've penned a great poem which I thoroughly enjoyed. Helen |
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JamesMichael Member Empyrean
since 1999-11-16
Posts 33336Kapolei, Hawaii, USA |
Fine writing...insightfully done...James |
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Margherita Member Seraphic
since 2003-02-08
Posts 22236Eternity |
Dear Jimmy, your write touches me with its melancholic truth. Beautifully done really and of course I can relate too. Recently I helped a friend moving and there was this beautiful old book with a hundred photographs of her ancestry, but to my distress and hers, there was not one with a name or a note. No one today is able to say who they actually were .... As Alison says we could just imagine their stories and we were delighted by the ladies' robes and hats etc. ... Very much enjoyed. Margherita |
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2islander2 Member Ascendant
since 2008-03-12
Posts 6825by the sea |
these old photographies are treasures indeed, we can think of family and friends "marvelled" about how young all people have been, thanks jewsley for the accurate and sweet words, yann |
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