On Seeing the 1911 Census of IReland

ON SEEING THE 1911 CENSUS OF IRELAND

The name that first comes to view
is not my grandfather’s but yours,
the granduncle dead decades before my birth.
Never seen except in a cracked sepia photograph,
lovingly kept on my grandfather’s bureau,
tenderly dusted, dust from dust.
A silent face encased in glass you watched him age
as you could never do,
watching his children and his grandchildren
grow before your always-open eyes,
seeing the years of his marriage unfold
while you remained unchanged
observing the life you never had.
A photograph carried with love across the western sea
as your brother found the new life you could not.
A photograph lost to the trash when the house was sold
and you now buried in a New York landfill
forgotten and alone.
But in that census you remain alive
age fifteen, a boy on the cusp of manhood,
but destined to never see its bloom
Occupation “scholar”-
fine words for the simple school where you had your lessons
then returned up the hill
to help tend the sheep
or thresh the hay.
Or perhaps merely rest upon the limestone boulders
and watch the fishing boats return at sunset to the bay below.
Did you see a reminder of the limestone of home
as you faced the chalk at Warlencourt?
Did you hear an echo of the surf from home
in the guns along the Somme?
Did you disappear in the mud of Flanders
like your photograph in the New York trash,
or, in the final moments ,
did you think of eternal youth?

Reviews

[Sami Khalil]

"buried in a New York landfill
forgotten and alone.
But in that census you remain alive
age fifteen, a boy on the cusp of manhood,
but destined to never see its bloom
Occupation “scholar”-
fine words for the simple school where you had your lessons
then returned up the hill
to help tend the sheep
or thresh the hay. "
Bringing back memories and some history can be good to teach us lessons and share the struggles of the past generation who suffered to make it like we are doing now. We can relate to that...Well penned as always ...:)

[SteveB]

Thank you so much Sami.

[Renée]

being a genealogy nut myself this piece captures perfectly what goes on in our minds as we find a piece of our families past ! You bring this person to life though your words ! thank you for sharing !

[SteveB]

Thank you so much for the review. Your words are greatly appreciated.

[Renée]

my pleasure !

[Glen Yumang Manese]

You weaved a lot of memories into this write... the passages of time just carry through the lines of the this read... You consume the reader within the whole mass of the work...

[SteveB]

"Consume" the reader? Thank you for such high praise.

[Rita L. Sev]

The grand scope of history, brought home in a photograph...

A silent face encased in glass you watched him age
as you could never do...

We look at those pictures and that census, and cannot fathom all the years that separate...

This is a great piece, Steve - interesting and poignant at the same time; I want to go and touch the faces in my grandmother's photo album, and feel the connection...

[SteveB]

Rita, given how I value your writing any praise from you is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[SyberRose]

I found a picture of my great-grandfather from Northern Ireland on ancestry.com and his family...I never knew he came from N. Ireland until I saw the census...he was my paternal great-grandfather...as my mothers family was from England....nicely penned Steve...its exciting bringing your ancestors to life again if even thru a photo or census....Rose

[SteveB]

Thank you Rose. It is amazing what we can find when we look. I had heard the stories and seen the photo over the years but when I got to see the census it drove home his youth in a manner that a photograph of a young man in the uniform of the Munster Fusiliers could not.

[Rogue]

Steve,
What a wonderful glimpse of a history of a life. Full of great imagery and bittersweet thoughts and questioning.

Fabulous work and wording on this. :)

[SteveB]

Thank you so much Rogue. You are always far too kind but I greatly appreciate it.