Sample post
***
Divergent, Yet Intersecting
John Newmark
Transylvania, Holland, Alsace, Poland,
England, Germany, Lithuania and Texas
all contain soil upon which ancestors dwelt;
Farmers, beekeepers, shepherds,
tailors, blacksmiths, salesmen,
clergy, judges, and doctors.
As I research ancestral lines I discover
some ancestors celebrated Hanuka,
others Christmas, and still others
the Green Corn Ceremony;
Jewish, Methodist Episcopalian,
Puritan, Christian Scientist, Mennonite,
Choctaw, and Cherokee.
I shall never find the records
for my distant ancestors
who either came to this continent
by crossing the Land Bridge,
or originally emerged
from the Nanih Waiya in Mississippi.
I delve through obituaries,
microfilm depositories,
internet databases;
I interview relatives,
and rummage through attics.
What I find doesn't alter who I am;
It illuminates the divergent,
yet still intersecting
paths of my ancestors.
***
John Newmark, the editor of Generations of Poetry, maintains a genealogy blog at TransylvanianDutch. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri, with a wonderful woman named, Jenifer, and a black cat named, Schrodinger.
