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Sunday, April 15, 2012

Graveside Vigil

Cemetery by Susie Clevenger


When I cannot look
At your face again,
I shall sit
In the quiet shade
Of an ancient oak tree
And caress the granite
Inscribed with your name,
Wondering how so much life
Can be defined or contained
In three engraved lines.
A cold chisel cannot
Invoke your smile,
The warmth of your arms,
The brush of your lips on mine.
These solitary cemetery visits
Give new life to my memories,
My only link to you
Until our paths meet again
In the next world.

7 comments:

Susie Clevenger said...

A lonely vigil to visit a lost loved one but the warmth of memories. A beautiful take on my cemetery photograph.

Madeleine Begun Kane said...

So intensely emotional. Well done.

Cad said...

Wondering how so much life
Can be defined or contained
In three engraved lines

I heard of an interesting BBC programme coming up about the life of ordinary Romans who never made the history books - the presenter reckoned a lot could be discovered about their lives by messages on their tombstones!

Kerry O'Connor said...

Those first 5 lines are as classical as anything I've read in poetry. This is a heart-felt elegy.

Margaret said...

This is just lovely!

Adura Ojo said...

Hi Mary M,

A lovely tearjerker...sad and beautiful. Well done.

Herotomost said...

Maybe you can't say much in three chiseled lines....but in the nineteen that you have written you can write the world....splendid.