Forest of Dean FHT Forum - Lovers goodbye

Lovers goodbye (reply)

slowhands — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 21:43:59 +0000

" Lovers goodbye ! I cannot stay
To linger out a dusty day,
There is a soft sleep beneath the yew
Whose lamps burn red above my head.
I need no ray to light the way -
All ways are ended. I am dead.
'Tis from the grave I call to you,
Lovers goodbye."

Frederick William Harvey , Hartpury, (1888 – 1957)

Dear Ancestor (reply)

llangrove — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 14:59:19 +0000

David,

Thanks for posting the poem! I know the exact feeling! It's how I felt on 26 March 2007 when I located the gravestone of my g-g-grandparents. I went back again the next day and planted flowers. I hated to leave the churchyard, as I never know if I'll get back to dear old England, and the Forest. My husband took a lovely photo, which is hanging on the bedroom wall. It's the first thing I see each morning.........

Dear Ancestor

admin — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 05:48:13 +0000

Dear Ancestor,

Your tombstone stands among the rest; neglected and alone.
The name and date are chiseled out on polished, black slate stone.
It reached out then to all who cared.
It is too late to mourn.
You did not know that I exist
You died and I was born.
Yet in each of us are cells of you in flesh, in blood, in bone.
Our blood contracts and beats a pulse entirely not our own.

Dear Ancestor, the place you filled one hundred years ago
Spreads out among the ones you left who would have loved you so.
I wonder how you lived and loved.
I wonder if you knew
That someday I would find that spot and come to visit you.

Author Unknown