Questions About Place
Can you ever really know a place?
You show up,
dwell in it for a short time
or long,
but you never know
its whole history.
What happened here
before-
a day ago,
a decade,
a century,
a millennium?
If you are perfectly still
for a very long time,
can you feel its past
whisper across your senses?
Is the memory stored somewhere
in the collective unconscious?
Or is that only your imagination,
your ownness
filling up the space?
It is a mystery
and now that you have come
to occupy this place,
you have become a part
of everything that went before,
a part of the mystery.
Someday,
in a hundred years
or a thousand,
someone may come here
and wonder-
who was here before?
And the mystery of you
may whisper
across their senses.
By Maria Brady-Smith
Lovely…
We went to visit one of Jim’s ancient ancestor’s towns in Virginia long ago. It was James City, VA. We pulled into the little town with 1950’s closed stores and gas stations. I had the strangest feeling. I told Jim this isn’t It. It’s over there. I pointed to a spot out of sight and over a hill. He laughed and we hopped into the car to drive up and over the hill. There it stood. All that was left of that old James City was an ancient inn and a few outbuildings around it. We talked to an elderly gentleman on the porch. He told us that, “Yes, his family place was all that was left after the Civil War battle that included the cannon bombardment from both sides. Jim and I both wondered how I “knew” that hidden spot in my soul. Later, genealogy research showed me that my ancestors had been in James City, too. Sorry about this long digression. I do believe you feel or sense other’s souls or memories in some spots. It has happened to me many times.
Fascinating! What an amazing story! I think there is so much going on that we do not understand and a lot of it is because we don’t take the time to explore our inner depths.
Sorry about any errors or typos. I was so excited when I read you poem. Your poems always speak to me. I feel such a kinship to you. I bet we are related back from the Colonial Era. If it is not in blood, it is in spirit.
Nettie
Maria, I have sat on the bench in your photo many times. In the future, I will have your lovely poem to remember every time I visit that spot. Thanks!
Well, that is so cool! Maybe you were there just a few minutes before me! It is kind of remote. I don’t think very many people go back there but I love it there!