Montpelier Slave Descendants Reunion, June 8-10, 2007


"Only for a Moment"
By Hortense B. Hinton Ed.D.
In Celebration of the Slave Descendants Reunion — Montpelier 2007
Remembering is sacred.  
It revives and brings alive... 
The remembered and those who are wise enough to remember. 
It honors their gifts to us
It acknowledges their presence with us always.
Let us go there, Let us be there, 
Let's do it again  
If only for a moment

Let us feel the moment, 
...the love, the joy, the warmth
...the pain, the fear, the terror
...the absolute jubilation
Whenever we want to, just feel the need to 
We can go there, be there, do it again,
Can we imagine, know, understand?
No, not really.  
But we still have to...

We need to remember
It is dangerous to forget
Don't want it to happen again
Yet because of it, we are
Our survival depends on it
So we must go there, be there, must do it again.  
If only for a moment

Remembering is healing.
The wounds are deep, the pain recurring, cannot be ignored
Don't want to just survive, want to thrive
Want to be whole, bring it all together
So we gotta go there, really be there, do it all over again.  
If only for a moment

Remembering sustains us 
It restores us, keeps us real
Keeps us moving forward, in spite of it all
Without it we die - the remembered and those who failed to remember
So
It is good for us to go there, 
It is good for us to be here, 
It is good for us to do this again and again 
and again
If only for a moment
© June 10, 2007, Hortense B. Hinton.
©2005 Montpelier Slave Descendants Reunion Committee. All rights reserved.