Cemetery Art

Five Days

/ animar64 / 3 Comments
Photo: A.M. Moscoso

Photo: A.M. Moscoso

Last Summer I was stocking up on cemetery pictures for my Halloween Blog (which did not happen due to the fact my life decided we were NOT going to be doing any writing for the rest of the year ) when I found this headstone in a cemetery in Bothell, Washington.

What grabbed my attention and wouldn’t let go was the epitaph.

A short one.

It read:

Aged 5 Days.

I guess if you had to sum up a baby’s life, you can’t say much more.

I’m sure the child was beloved, wanted, cherished. I’m sure that in its room that baby had a dresser with clothes, toys lining a shelf and that it’s Mother had picked a name that she had put to a face to the minute she knew she was pregnant – an adult -face because isn’t that what babies do?

Grow up?

You give them adult sounding names, strong names so that when they grow up that name will be waiting for them to take on and out into the world.

Aged 5 Days.

I’ll be the first to admit it my grief and anger and despair are always front and center. I suppose it’s why I write what I write. Or why it’s easy to approach the subject matter I deal in.

So, had I been that Mother I probably would have gone back and carved into the stone- with my bare hands:

Aged Five Fucking LITTLE  Days.

Life isn’t fair and Death is a Cheat and when it comes right down to it, they have a lot in common.  Two of those things being that they create anxiety and hope at epic levels.

Such is the source of the horror of it all – how fine that line is between life and death and how fragile it all is.

 

 

Say There Little Chickadee

/ animar64 / 3 Comments
Photo: A.M. Moscoso

Photo: A.M. Moscoso

A few years ago I was out ( on Halloween of course ) taking Cemetery pictures for my blog when I noticed I was being followed.

By a crow.

He didn’t fly around me, he sort of hopped along and when we came to this section of the cemetery he hopped from one headstone to the other.

He seemed irritated ( by the sounds of it ) that I wasn’t joining him in the fun.

Photo: A.M. Moscoso

Photo: A.M. Moscoso

When I was done he hopped up on this headstone and chatted at me.

Right. Like I was going to hop up on the headstone and join him.

But he seemed insistent. In fact he was cawing his little lungs out at me.

I took his picture and was going to take another and when I looked into my camera he was gone.

Just like that.

               I felt a little  sad when I look at those pictures now  because I think I missed my chance to have some fun that afternoon.

amm

We’ll see.

My Grave Thoughts Continue

/ Anita Marie / 2 Comments
Photo:St. Joseph Catholic Church Cemetery – Rayne, LA Image Gallery

In the City of Rayne Louisiana there is a very unique place

and that place is

of course

its cemetery.

Rayne’s St Joseph’s Cemetery is the only cemetery in the United States that faces from North / South as opposed to the traditional East/West design.

As a matter of fact, I DO find that interesting.

When This You See

/ Anita Marie / 1 Comment

I like to visit real cemeteries year round- to practice my photography and most of all to watch the people who visit there, I find it all very inspiring.

However, ’tis the Season for cemeteries so I found some interesting pictures of historic cemeteries for you to look at below and more  HERE– also, I’ve included a few of  my own at the end of this post.

a.m.m.

Photo: John’s Pics- Highgate Cemetery, London
Photo: Carlos Sousa-Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, New York
Photo:Peter Curbishley-Tikhvin Cemetery, Alexander Nevsky Monastery, St. Petersburg, Russia

Photos By Me:

Photo: A.M. Moscoso- Iowa
Photo: A.M. Moscoso-Evergreen-Washelli
Photo: A.M. Moscoso- Evergreen-Washelli

Once Upon A Nightmare

/ Anita Marie / 3 Comments

” Once I had a nightmare ” my friend Domino told me ” about this witch who tried to break into my house “

” Okay, ” I tell Domino thinking this sounds like a good story to kill that long bus ride home from Seattle ” so how did it go? “

“Well, in my dream I heard my dog crying and in my dream I woke up and went and looked out my bedroom window. “

” And your dog was…”

” Hanging from a tree. “

” Like Hell you say. “

” It’s true, so I tried to run down my hallway to help get her out of the tree but the floor was gone and all I saw where the floor should have been was this dark pit filled with people with snake’s eyes and they were talking to me in a language I couldn’t understand.”

” I really hate it when that happens…” Domino looks at me a little strangely and I say ” you know… in my dreams.”

” Well sure.  So anyway I go back to my bedroom and crawl out my window and then I fall into my rose bushes. “

I turned that image over in my mind a few times..

Domino isn’t into breaking a sweat for any reason- she wouldn’t run wouldn’t run from Lizzie Borden  swinging an ax to save her own  life so I couldn’t begin to imagine her crawling out of a window.

I smiled and encouraged she went on.

” When I get outside there’s this woman standing by Tippy and she’s got her back turned towards me. As much as I want to help Tippy I don’t want her, whoever she is, to turn around.”

” No. ” I tell Domino. ” You certainly do not want that.  It’s a psychology thing…”

” Yeah well, she doesn’t turn around. She just reached up and grabs Tippy by her neck and yanks down. “

” Damn. ” I say ” So what did you do?”

” I run back to my front door and just as I run through it, the door slams shut and I throw myself against it…and I can feel the knob turning in my hand and just before it opens I lock it.”

” Good for you. “

” It didn’t matter, because the door swung open and pushed me back and then the Witch came in with Tippy. She was dragging Tippy by the rope and then Tippy opened her eyes and- she wasn’t Tippy anymore.”

” What was she? “

” Dead.” Domino says sadly. ” And I started to cry and scream for Tippy not to leave me and then I woke up.”

” Look, it was only a dream right? I mean Tippy isn’t really dead and the Witch didn’t get you.”

Domino looks at me and I look at her and Domino asks me if I think she’ll have that awful nightmare again.

 ” Domino”  I say as I  pull a rope from out of my pocket ” you’re not awake yet.”

If You Want To Know The Truth

/ Anita Marie / 4 Comments

 If you’ve spent a lot of  time in Funeral Homes

and Cemeteries

the obvious doesn’t affect you.

Shadows over tombstones,

crows strolling across graves

and mourners standing over old graves with the lettering worn away

are as common place in your day

as getting stuck in traffic or not being able to find your keys.

It’s the little things, the sublte things

that you see

when you wake up in the middle of the

night.

 

Photo: A.M. Moscoso

Photo: A.M. Moscoso