Carolyn gave me a copy of Ted Kooser's "Lights on a Ground of Darkness" for my birthday yesterday and I finished reading it this afternoon. The 60 page book was first published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2005. It has been referred to as "an evolution of time and place" which is to say that the author has put together family stories, family history and his memory to tell a story in a way that only a poet could do. The poet Edwin Muir wrote, "Our memories of a place, no matter how fond we are of it, are little more that a confusion of lights on a ground of darkness." Kooser has said that "writing this book was the most important work he has ever undertaken because it was his attempt to keep those beloved people alive against the relentless erosion of time." Reading it makes me wish I would have written more of Mother and Dad's stories. Aunt Ethel loved to tell family stories and had no problem filling in some of the details. Taking flowers to all the family graves for Memorial Day with her was always a time when we heard new stories. She didn't marry until she was in her late 30's and never had children so family was very important to her. Who knows, I've already written a bit about my Grandparents and someday, I may try to write a bit more.
I'm glad you enjoyed it, Dad. I wish we'd have written down more of the stories that the grandparents told! Every year on my birthday Grandma would tell me about Aunt Jannie running to tell her that "Buds had a little girl!" and how she jumped up from milking the cow and spilled the milk!
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