To Gov. William Bradford (Of Plymouth Plantation) Poem by Laurence Overmire

I think of you now
My 10th great grandfather
I think of you now when
I should have thought of you
Many times before.

The debt of gratitude I owe
Too great to ever be repaid
If not for you, I would not
Be here.

And yet, how many others can say
The same
This entire nation perhaps was
Held together by the seed of your
Committed strength and character.

Across the great ocean you came
And left all but a dream behind
Your wife, lost overboard
Before she ever set foot to shore.

Yet you endured, you and only a
Handful of those who started the
Long and perilous Mayflower’s journey
Survived that first
Decimating winter.

How did you keep their spirits up?
How did you buoy your own?

We do not think of the price you paid
Not now, in our comfortable beds
What is it to us, who never look back and
Blindly stumble forward
Tripping over our own ghosts?

We might do well to seek your wisdom.

How did you do it?

The truth is in the soil
The land claimed and made
Holy by your unwavering faith
A promise clasped in your
Firm hands: of justice, with honor.

You saw the opportunity, didn’t you?
You refused to let us down.

The chance was there
Perhaps the last chance for all
Mankind
To create something different, something new
Something far better than the weary
Unyielding world
Had ever seen before.


(Previously published in Honor and Remembrance, Indelible Mark Publishing,2007)