Monday, April 15, 2013

Let's Walk Through a Cemetery


Welcome to Day 15 of Drawing Into Poems, my daily drawing/seeing/writing study into poetry.  You can read more about this month-long project here on my April 1 post.  Feel free to read the books with me, and pull out your own sketchbook and jewelry box full of metaphor too...

Day 15 - Hunters Creek Cemetery
Click the drawing to enlarge it.

Students - If you've been a reader here at The Poem Farm for a while, then you know how much I love walking through cemeteries.  I adore walking through cemeteries for the same reason that I love buttons...cemeteries are full of stories.  Last night, on our way home from the Edible Book Festival, my daughters and I stopped the car to take a walk around this old cemetery near our home.  I just walked through quickly, pausing at different headstones to sketch and wonder.  Some are so fancy, some so plain...just like people's homes.  Walking last evening, in the twilight dusk, under a shiny-skinny moon, I felt grateful to be alive.

What places make you feel grateful and reflective?  It is important for all of us to find places where we can find our quiet selves and just think. Cemeteries slow me down and help me remember what matters most to me.  I wish that I could talk with all of the people buried here, learn from them, hear their lessons.

Later today, at 8pm EST, I will be a guest of Wonderopolis for a #WonderChat on Twitter. Please join us to talk about poems, wondering, and how these two are perfect friends.

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4 comments:

  1. Ah, yes, so many stories. There is a very old cemetery in a medieval town near here that is presided over by a slightly crazy man. He spends his days repeating a monologue of the stories behind all the stones and crosses.

    I prefer the woods and the sea for stories, since cemeteries make me too sad.

    Have a wonderful WonderChat!!

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  2. A cemetery near our home has a long staircase to nowhere, hidden, engulfed by trees and shrubbery. Someday I hope to learn the history of why it's there, where it once led.

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  3. I love strolling through cemeteries too, Amy - sketching, imagining, reflecting, appreciating. Thanks for sharing this post today! (I have visited Randolph Caldecott's grave in a humble cemetery in St. Augustine, Fla., a couple of times. So humbling to be there among the pines and birds and palm trees...!)

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  4. There was a cemetery down the street from the house where I grew up. I loved riding my bike there and wandering around, looking at the headstones and wondering about the people buried there. It was such a peaceful place. I never thought about writing a poem about it, though. Thanks for the inspiration!
    Catherine

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