"To forget one's ancestor's is to be a brook without a source,

- a tree without root"

- Ancient Taoist proverb

Sojourn

I've had it wrong, these many years
in quarters dark, unframed nights,
to ask in all sincerety,
for you to take your leave in flights,
from your responsibility.

To brandish arms and bandaliers
in this small place would be for nought,
and spent in vain obscurity
not here to archive what you've wrought
nor sage to weigh your sophistry

Abiding in those lofty spheres
enduring watch for nascent heed
to calls from our antiquity
their pagan whispers bid me flee
or find a new divergency

Midnight foreign sojourn brings
affright and wonder in the main
where voices versed in parity
with rythmic chant and long refrain
I learn a new temerity

Introduce me to your friends!
Show me where and how you live!
We danced in this festivity,
mothers, fathers led the way,
Abounding love in levity!

- Les Blough
June 21, 2008

June 21, 2008 - Written in remembrance and honor of Hans Garrett Blough on the 18th anniversary of his journey to the other side. My son Hans died at the age of 18 in an accident in Brookline, Massachusetts on June 28, 1990.  The poem above attempts to say that we must not wait for the dead to visit us; rather, it is important that we go to them in our meditations. As in the ceremonies and rituals of many indigenous peoples, we can learn from the collective consciousness of "the old ones". Traveling back the path of our ancestors we receive guidance for our lives here. A similar message is found in a related poem, reflecting on the life of Hans' paternal grandfather, Lester M. Blough Sr.: THE PAGAN


More poetry by Les Blough