Far Memory. Poem by ivor or ivor.e hogg

I’m haunted by strange memories
of places I have never been
I can remember vividly
Street scenes I know I have not seen

It’s very strange and puzzles me.
I cannot see how possibly
I have access to memories
I know do not belong to me.

I see street scenes from long ago.
Though where they are I do not know.
The clothes are unfamiliar.
To me they seem peculiar.

I think it may be Budapest.
But honestly that’s just a guess.
It could be almost anywhere.
But I am sure I’ve not been there.

My wife suggests telepathy.
I do not see how it could be.
A temporal anomaly
which can’t exist apparently.

The learned experts all agree
it’s an impossibility
But can’t explain how I can see
Scenes from the eighteenth century.

I have a photograph which shows.
People in old fashioned clothes.
Which was taken in old Moscow
More than a hundred years ago.

Establishing the verity
Of the intrusive memories
The scenes I see so vividly.
Though how remains a mystery.

I know they are real memories.
Although the experts disagree.
I hope to prove eventually
these memories have reality.

They are passed down genetically.
Encoded in our DNA.
I will research my family tree
and try to prove it come what may.

Although it’s just a theory.
I will pursue it ardently
Some body in my ancestry
may well turn out to be.

A man who lived in old Moscow
Who emigrated to the west.
Although perhaps I’ll never know.
It gives my life an interest.

I like to think that there might be
somebody in my family tree.
Who will prove to be the key
which will unlock the mystery.

Of who perhaps I used to be
in the eighteenth century.
Which would explain the memories
apparently passed down to me

Saturday,21 August 2010
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