Tom Ross

[Granny5]

My great grandfather left his family when my grandfather was a toddler. My grandfather died in his late 30's, 5 months before my mother was born. So we have very little information on the great grandfather, Tom Ross.


Who are you and where did you go
All those many years ago
When your son was at his mother’s knee
Leaving a child so innocent and young
And a loving wife at home
Why weren't you there in 1910
When that epidemic came
Taking her while leaving him alone
Were there others, young boys and girls
Who were spread among the living
To be raised without knowing
Brother or sister and all of them
Forever left to wonder
Who was the man who begat this family
And why did you never consider
What kind of man your son became
What legacy he left behind
We search but we find nothing
That will tell us the answers we quest for
But a family we are and a family we stay
With not one of us ever leaving

[Poppy]

Excellent Granny. I know how long you have searched for those answers and it will come someday. Keep looking.

[motherhubbard]

Granny, that was wonderful. I liked it very much. I think it would be easier to follow with some punctuation. I keep hoping you find that fellow. Maybe pen has some genealogy and the answer is there since it started in his neck of the woods.

[CdnReader]

I really liked this, Granny. I read it right after re-reading the "Are you?" thread that MH has kindly bumped up to the top with an entry for Browneyedbailey. And now the question becomes: "Who are you? Why did you?" I wonder what would happen if you tried this again using the "Are you?" format, as though he's still alive somewhere and able to answer. Do you think the poem would change? (...just an early-morning ramble from the other side of the world....)

Life has so many questions....and so few answers. Sigh....

[Granny5]

I really liked this, Granny. I read it right after re-reading the "Are you?" thread that MH has kindly bumped up to the top with an entry for Browneyedbailey. And now the question becomes: "Who are you? Why did you?" I wonder what would happen if you tried this again using the "Are you?" format, as though he's still alive somewhere and able to answer. Do you think the poem would change? (...just an early-morning ramble from the other side of the world....)

Life has so many questions....and so few answers. Sigh....

I really like your idea Cdn. I think I'll give it a go....grannys are a little slow with their work so it'll take me a while!:lol:
Thank you for the suggestion. I think it'll be fun to try.:)

[Granny5]

Granny, that was wonderful. I liked it very much. I think it would be easier to follow with some punctuation. I keep hoping you find that fellow. Maybe pen has some genealogy and the answer is there since it started in his neck of the woods.

MH, thank you.
(you know I'm much better at Algebra than puncuation!)

[motherhubbard]

Yes, mom. But, puncuation is like the -,+,=,<,>,x,&#37; of language. Very similar!

Cdn has a great idea.

[PrinceMyshkin]

My great grandfather left his family when my grandfather was a toddler. My grandfather died in his late 30's, 5 months before my mother was born. So we have very little information on the great grandfather, Tom Ross.

But a family we are and a family we stay
With not one of us ever leaving

And what a family! There are families of flesh and blood, and families of the mind, as love reaches out its long tentacles to bring back to us those whom time or circumstance has removed...

[Pendragon]

I remember as a boy writing things like this, only with anger instead of sadness and really wanting to know. My dad left when my brother was but a babe, before I was 5. I wondered why, and where he was, and later on, why he came to town to see his sisters and his brother but never me and my brother. Dad and I were long at peace with each other when he passed three years or so back, but the memories of that little boy writing those poems doesn't vanish that easily...

Pen

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