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Balladeer
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since 1999-06-05
Posts 25505
Ft. Lauderdale, Fl USA

0 posted 2000-07-29 11:48 PM



There will come a time, not far away,
I'll bid this earth adieu
As we all must when our time comes
To tell us our turn's through.
I'll have a lavish funeral
My family will be sad.
They'll stand around and talk about
The happy times we had.

And, at the club, my golfing pals
Will tell jokes and recall
The silly way I swung a club
Or how I hit the ball.

My kids will often think of me -
Some funny anecdote
About some foolish thing I did
Or simple poem I wrote.

Fifty years pass. All friends are gone
Most everyone I'd known.
My kids will be grandparents now
With grandkids of their own.

Yet, still, though quite infrequently,
An opportunity
May come around to give someone
A cause to think of me.

Another hundred years go by.
Now no one has survived
Who walked this earth when I did
At the time I was alive.

All stories are forgotten. Every
Thing about myself.
My life has been reduced to but
A picture on a shelf.

Another hundred years. By now
All photos are gone, too
And every house that I lived in
Plus every place I knew.

I will not have existed
And I know this well because
I had a great-great-grandpa once
But don't know who he was.

I don't know what he liked to do,
What kind of job he had.
No way to know what made him tick,
What made him smile or sad.

So that's the way it is, my friends.
It happens to us all
Who don't do something glorious
That history may recall.

And so I sit, with pen in hand,
Creating verse because
It's not to show you what I am
But to show the world I was.


© Copyright 2000 Michael Mack - All Rights Reserved
Paula Finn
Member Ascendant
since 2000-06-17
Posts 5546
missouri
1 posted 2000-07-29 11:52 PM


and what a wonderful wonderful legacy you have penned.

never say never

Tennessee Angel
Senior Member
since 2000-06-03
Posts 661
Tennessee
2 posted 2000-07-29 11:53 PM


Oh, Balladeer!  This is so perfect...so true!  I think everyone has the need to be remembered.  Not necessarily so that they can be honored or anything, but just so that people know that there was a person with that name and with those dreams who spent time upon this earth.  Excellent!!  

--You can either take me as I am...or you can watch me as I go.--

serenity blaze
Member Empyrean
since 2000-02-02
Posts 27738

3 posted 2000-07-30 12:07 PM


Lesson # 1.  I am now taking notes...lol, but I am, really...  Thank you, kind sir...
hopefully I can learn by example, as well as my mistakes...grinnin' atchyou!!! thanks for the "humble pie"...

Toddles
Member
since 2000-07-24
Posts 396
New Orleans, Louisiana
4 posted 2000-07-30 12:17 PM


Balladeer: This is my favorite stanza...


"I will not have existed
And I know this well because
I had a great-great-grandpa once
But don't know who he was."


Well said, but I have a feeling you just may live on through your words, heartfelt & true!!!


Marge Tindal
Deputy Moderator 5 ToursDeputy Moderator 1 TourDeputy Moderator 1 TourDeputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Empyrean
since 1999-11-06
Posts 42384
Florida's Foreverly Shores
5 posted 2000-07-30 12:18 PM


Balladeer~
You've surely stated the truth ...

'And so I sit, with pen in hand,
Creating verse because
It's not to show you what I am
But to show the world I was.'

For all the reasons I'd want to be remembered,
the heart I put into my writing is second on the list.

I would wish the remembrance of our verse
for all of us who are poets.

Thanks, my friend, for reminding me how
much I remember those who wrote before me.
~*Marge*~



~*The pen of the poet never runs out of ink, as long as we breathe.*~
noles1@totcon.com


MMoonchild
Senior Member
since 2000-07-13
Posts 1715
PA
6 posted 2000-07-30 12:57 PM


And so I sit, with pen in hand,
Creating verse because
It's not to show you what I am
But to show the world I was.

I am sure we  will all love this verse especially...thank you, B
~~softly
Maureen

Sudhir Iyer
Member Ascendant
since 2000-04-26
Posts 6943
Mumbai, India : now in Belgium
7 posted 2000-07-30 06:46 AM


Balladeer,
Another lovely poem from you...

Very thought provoking indeed... in fact what follow is a direct result of what you have caused to happen through the poem... Thanks for the opportunity

but I cannot completely agree with you on this... there is a huge meaning in the next three words: "The memories remain"...

The legacy of a person is said to flow from one generation to another to another... What serious loss is it if photographs don't remain or actual remembrances of appearance or behaviour of persons don't remain...

Nothing too grave or serious, but the education imparted by parents to children and the continuance of that is the heritage that we can expect to remain way down in even 5000 years... thats how we evolved language, writing, music, science and so many areas of progress...

So there is always hope that the legacy of one generation will be passed to the next, and in their actions, our existence will be marked...

Thanks once again... for letting be ramble...

However these lines are so significant to me:

And so I sit, with pen in hand,
Creating verse because
It's not to show you what I am
But to show the world I was.

if this is a reason that you write such beautiful poetry, so be it... who am I to challenge (this selfish reader is always demanding more...   )

Many regards,
sudhir

brian madden
Member Elite
since 2000-05-06
Posts 4374
ireland
8 posted 2000-07-30 07:07 AM


WOW another great poem Balladeer, I often reflect on these things that time seems to wipe the slate clean with only traces of our existence behind. To steal some of the spotlight and quote from myself "I have penned epitaphs on snow, and written my legacy in dust." but in a way we continue to live through the people we leave behind and as poets we have a certain immortality through our words. Even if they don't stand the great test of time your words are engraved upon the hearts of those who read them now. I am honoured to witness your legacy. Another excellent addition to your poetic story.

"A frog, it cannot comprehend the sea Nor me happiness" Paul Draper-Mansun

Tess
Member
since 2000-03-22
Posts 288
Australia
9 posted 2000-07-30 07:22 AM


Like the way this poem made me think, and I hope you're wrong about the first few lines!
"There will come a time, not far away,"
as I hope to read many many more of your poems!  

"Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by
rule."~ Samuel Butler ~


ethome
Member Patricius
since 2000-05-14
Posts 11858
New Brunswick Canada
10 posted 2000-07-30 07:23 AM


You're so right, no one gets out of this one alive. Keep writing good poetry like you do you just might pull that final idea off.
Nan
Administrator
Member Seraphic
since 1999-05-20
Posts 21191
Cape Cod Massachusetts USA
11 posted 2000-07-30 07:58 AM


what better legacy can we give our children than our own personal words - I've got to agree with you, Deer... This one is quite nicely done - Liked it then, like it now...
Sunshine
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-25
Posts 63354
Listening to every heart
12 posted 2000-07-30 08:10 AM


....and like it still....

Karilea

~~~ Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow.
Helen Keller ~~~

When you want to be loved, look within...KRJ

doreen peri
Member Elite
since 1999-05-25
Posts 3812
Virginia
13 posted 2000-07-30 08:26 AM


i don't remember this one.... but now i will never forget it...

and one day, when i'm a picture in a frame, i hope i'm remembered, too

you are such a wonderful poet.... i am one reader who will never forget you....

excellent writing, michael

Seymour Tabin
Member Empyrean
since 1999-07-07
Posts 31720
Tamarac Fla
14 posted 2000-07-30 09:32 AM


Balladeer,
My ghosts hang on the wall beyond that perhaps a poem or two. But my feelings are you have written an epopee here.

T McCoy
Member
since 2000-07-24
Posts 186

15 posted 2000-07-30 09:43 AM


absolutley fantastic writing...SIR!  haha
start to finish this is great writing, but like Toddles I really got hit by the great grandfather verse.  So true.  All so true.
Looking forward to more of your work,
                   Tony

- we're stuck...inside our own machines...apparitions - Matthew Good

Poet deVine
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Member Seraphic
since 1999-05-26
Posts 22612
Hurricane Alley
16 posted 2000-07-30 09:49 AM


There will come a time in the not too distant future, when someone will have a grocery receipt for a bookmark and the book will be Voices on the Web..the marked page will be a poem of yours. Someone will again be touched by your words as we are here. We'll share you with the world. And you will be remembered. This is one of your best..but then they ALL are!  
Trew
Member
since 2000-06-10
Posts 365
Ottawa, Canada
17 posted 2000-07-30 10:31 AM


Having lost a friend Friday morning, these very thoughts have been running through my mind.  It seems such a shame for a person, who has meant so much to so many, to eventually fade to obscurity.
I now know what I should do.
I will try to show the world who he was.

Mark Bohannan
Member Rara Avis
since 2000-06-21
Posts 7269
In the winds of Cherokee song
18 posted 2000-07-30 10:34 AM


Humbled I am at the wisdom of your vision.  I do wonder though if each grain of sand has its own set cycles only to return to the beach once again through the mere pattern of
all that lives.  Great write and love the
inspriation you give.

Martie
Moderator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-09-21
Posts 28049
California
19 posted 2000-07-30 10:38 AM


Balladeer--To put a word to paper that is pure with truth is to live forever.  Wonderful poem, Deer!
Toddles
Member
since 2000-07-24
Posts 396
New Orleans, Louisiana
20 posted 2000-07-30 04:57 PM


Back up with this one!!!

Irish Rose
Member Patricius
since 2000-04-06
Posts 10263

21 posted 2000-07-30 06:29 PM


Don't leave us! I'm in tears.    
Ok, calm down, we still have some time left, a few years, no wait! We're not old, just barely getting started. You really know how to pull on the heartstrings and this one did it!
< !signature-->

Kathleen





[This message has been edited by Irish Rose (edited 07-30-2000).]

Denise
Moderator
Member Seraphic
since 1999-08-22
Posts 22648

22 posted 2000-07-30 09:53 PM


Deep down inside, maybe that is the reason most of us write...to leave something of ourselves to the future. Excellent poem, Balladeer!

Denise

Balladeer
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-05
Posts 25505
Ft. Lauderdale, Fl USA
23 posted 2000-07-30 11:37 PM


I thank you all for your intriguing comments. In this place we all all be remembered...at least by each other  
Marge Tindal
Deputy Moderator 5 ToursDeputy Moderator 1 TourDeputy Moderator 1 TourDeputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Empyrean
since 1999-11-06
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Florida's Foreverly Shores
24 posted 2001-02-17 06:44 PM


*Hug*
For TODAY is the time to remember you !


~*The pen of the poet never runs out of ink, as long as we breathe.*~
noles1@totcon.com


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