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A WORD FROM BONNIE

I am very excited about getting some of my mother's poems on display through my web page. Some of her poems represent parts of her life, things that she lived through, and I appreciate mother "loaning them" to share those events with all of us. My mother is a wonderful God-loving person and I am a very fortunate person to have had her in my life for these many years. I sometimes marvel at her "gift" for putting words together that rhyme and also make sense, knowing that I certainly didn't inherit her talent.

I thought it only fitting that the first poem displayed on mother's web page be the one she composed for my first volume of "Pope County Illinois, Herald-Enterprise Newspaper Abstracts, 1917-1919," that was published in 1994 - this poem being in that book.

OUR FAMILY TREE

From the past to the present, as we wend our way,
Whence our ancestors came, to the present day;

We learn of those living before our time,
The seed then small, no branch to climb;

A tree now full from the seedling grew,
It's brances reach ut to include us, too.

Come walk with us through the eons of time,
As we ponder and muse on our family line;

From the libraries we find nuggets of gold,
Out to the graveyards with tombstones old;

White chalk on the markers covered with grime,
Bring out the names of another time;

Of our ancestors and the paths they once trod,
Of their lives, their hopes, their belief in God;

Learning of them helps us better understand,
Ourselves, as we seem to walk hand in hand;

With their spirits, they have given us a past,
As descendents we shall ever hold fast;

And with thanksgiving cherish our family tree,
That has been handed down to you and me.

Composed by Stella Isabelle Baker Harrington Barton
November 5, 1994