Poem: Dear Ancestor

On this All Souls’ Day (November 2nd), there are many different traditions from around the world to honor our dead. The simplest is taking the time to visit the cemetery. Looking into the past, the ancestors that we can never really know stretch back through time, weaving us into the web of the planet and letting us know that we belong.

“Dear Ancestor” by William Butler Yates

"Your tombstone stands among the rest
     Neglected and alone.
The name and date are chiseled out
     On polished marble stone.
It reaches out to all who care
     It is too late to mourn.

You did not know that I exist
     You died and I was born.
Yet each of us are cells of you
     In flesh and blood and 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 this spot
     And come to visit you."

~ William Butler Palmer