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Random thoughts and poems (and photographs) written in the grammatical tense "Future Imperfect".

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David Horton

Tag: genealogy

Excavations

July 25, 2020 by David Horton, posted in History, poetry

Fragments of

time just keep

emerging

from my brain

like finds from

archaeo-

logical

digs brought to

the surface

for study.

I turn them

over in

my mind’s eye

but they seem

to form no

pattern, no

clues to a

lost dark age.

Tagged family, genealogy, History, poetryLeave a comment

Payment due

June 25, 2020 by David Horton, posted in History, literature, poetry

Writing a

memoir is

a life’s work.

It has to

be earned

by the lines

of your face,

the wrinkles

of your hands,

the night fears

of your sleep,

the weariness

of your brain,

the failing of

your body,

and finished

just in time.

Tagged anxiety, archaeology, Australia, family, genealogy, History, memoir, old age, poetryLeave a comment

Philatelic thoughts

June 7, 2020 by David Horton, posted in History, media, poetry

Sometimes,

when I am

sorting my old

English

postage

stamps,

I wonder if

this one or

that one was

a stamp my

great great

grandfather

might have

used.

Tagged family, genealogy, History, philately, poetryLeave a comment

You must remember this

May 5, 2020 by David Horton, posted in History, poetry

Sometimes I

meet someone

from my past

who tells me

something I didn’t

know about

a common friend,

or enemy,

or event,

that completely

alters my

memory of

that person

or history.

Are all of

my memories

fungible?

Tagged genealogy, History, old age, poetry4 Comments

Vanishing perspective

March 19, 2020 by David Horton, posted in Bon mots, History, poetry

Once upon a

time I used to

say “Oh, if only

I was twenty

years younger”.

Now, suddenly

it seems, I

have to say

”Oh, if only

I was fifty

years younger.”

Tagged family, genealogy, History, old age, poetryLeave a comment

Dem bones, dem bones

February 22, 2020February 22, 2020 by David Horton, posted in Bon mots, History, literature, poetry

Every

family

has closets

packed full of

skeletons,

but some rattle

more loudly

than others

Tagged family, genealogy, History, literature, poetryLeave a comment

Timing

January 26, 2020 by David Horton, posted in Bon mots, cancer, History, literature, poetry

Good time
Bad time
Quick time
Slow time
First time
Last time
Past time
Present.

Tagged cancer, genealogy, History, literature, poetry, scienceLeave a comment

Last Word

January 26, 2020January 26, 2020 by David Horton, posted in Bon mots, History, poetry, science

The secret of
writing a good
autobiography
is to outlive
all of your
contemporaries

Tagged autobiography, family history, genealogy, History, poetry, science1 Comment

The lost generation

December 5, 2019 by David Horton, posted in Bon mots, History, literature, poetry, science

When I see an

unusual

familiar name

in the news,

I think, “Oh

that must be

the daughter

(or son) of

someone who

I once knew”.

Turns out,

these days,

it’s usually

a grandchild.

Tagged archaeology, Australia, genealogy, History, literature, poetry, scienceLeave a comment

Put it in your album

June 14, 2019 by David Horton, posted in Bon mots, literature, poetry

You take photos

to remind

yourself of

good times.

But you can’t

bear to look

at them again

because they

remind you of

good times.

Tagged genealogy, History, poetryLeave a comment

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Memoir

Hammering on the mind’s door

“I think we are well-advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind’s door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends. We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget. We forget the loves and the betrayals alike, forget what we whispered and what we screamed, forget who we were.” Joan Didion

A few of the themes

Consequences

Two cultures

Repeating patterns

Nature and nurture

Catcher in the Rye

Doorways

Prophet not without honour

Blood

Deaf

Smell

Building reserves in good times

Recent Posts

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