When is enough enough?!

When I began my project that should (eventually!) result in a comprehensive family chronicle I was convinced that I had at least the bulk, if not all, of the research under my belt. How wrong I was. The more I write, the more I find I still have to follow up.

Family history is by its very nature an endless quest. The story I am writing is in part the story of my personal quest to pursue my forebear's lives and to put them into their social and political context. Even though I am sticking religiously within my defined parameters, avenues keep opening up which cry out for exploring if I am in any way to do justice to the saga. But there has to come a point where the line is drawn! Something I think I recognized in a  poem I recently wrote ...

Needlecraft

(“At fifty one wants forebears almost as much as heirs” James Lasdun)

I have stitched you a life,

a patchwork of shades and shapes,

of textures and tones,

remnants pulled from the ragbag

of memory, snippets of hearsay,

embroidered at the edges

to neaten off your days.

But would its pattern

perplex or please?

Would you recognize

the contours of your years,

lie comfortable beneath this quilt?

Forgive my inept needlecraft -

this is all I have in which to wrap you.

(Copyright Gill Garrett 2016)