Around the Table...edit 2.00001 knot,duke

[tectak]

Around the table sat my father and his father, too.
There  were others gathered there, strangers that I felt I knew;  perhaps em-dash rather than semicolon for more continuity of thought?
but looking older than the yews that black and haggard grew good internal rhyme yews-grew... could it be "yew," collective, to perfect the rhyme?
 by graves, weak limbs held up by props
 to lift and raise them  from the ground.  like the rhythm, but "lift" and "raise" repititious - could one be a word with a more different meaning, perhaps more visual?
This was my memory.
 
Around the table sat my friends, and some whom I had lost to time.  "lost to time" is good.
They  talked to me and laughed with me, we  told old tales, we all spilt wine; is repeated "with me" necessary?
we looked to see  our father’s eyes, for all their  fathers sat with mine,
but only saw the loving smiles could this "the" be "their?"  Lot of "the" in the next line, but "their" in the previous; could a bigger change fit, such as "each loving smile?"  But better than that...
upon the faces of the proud.
We were their memories.  Beautiful: slightly different senses of "their" as, belonging to them vs. ours concerning them - both relevant.
 
Around the table, husbands, wives, some  with children by their side.  "[b]y their side" a little rough grammatically - strictly, should be "sides."  "On the side" is a little too humorous/cliche but satisfies the rhyme.  A puzzle.
We were their fathers, daughters, sons, brothers, sisters…all who died;  I read this with a pause after "sons" and none after "sisters."  Suggest an em-dash after "sons" and comma rather than ellipsis after "sisters," but that's just my reading.
as all must die and so become
a temporary  loss to some,
until again we  meet to be excellent dodge of the "we meet again" cliche!
someone else’s memory.
 
Tectak
2018
(Alternative title… Funerals more than Christenings these days)

Like this very much, which may make intensive criticism difficult.   Treat all the above as suggestions, might be trying too hard.

Central question:  do the dead remember, or consist of memories?  Answer ambiguous.

Good title choice - "Christenings" in the alternate lacks support in the poem.[/b]

Hi duke,
many thanks for this. All crit eaten. Credited. Do the dead remember? No, I can say that with certainty...who can argue?
Best,
tectak