Cameron Cemetery, Salem Community, Benton AR, photo by PL
by Pat Laster
I don’t want to be one-upping Ms. N., but her last week’s column listing of cemeteries hit me right in the Compendium of Journal Jottings that I’ve been amassing for several years.
I have a list–now, by adding those she named that I didn’t have, thank-you-very-much, Ms. N.—of 386 cemeteries in Arkansas. That's not complete, just ones I've come across in my readings.
Some of the more colorful names in MY list are: Ash Grove and Aunt Dilly, Barnishaw, Barren Fork, Brush Creek and Burnt Schoolhouse; Chalybeate Springs, Chickalah and Chinquapin;
Daniel and Dongola, Eagle and Eden, Free Gift and Free House, Gaster Hill and Graves, Hephzibah and Honey Hill, Ida Mission and Ivy Chapel,
Jerusalem and Judsonia, King and Koshkonong, Lick Creek and Lick Prairie, Maynard Bend and Morning Star, Needmore and Nogo, Old Jennie Lind and Old Texas, Puddin Ridge and Pumpkin Bend, and Quiet.
Red Doors and Rush Fork, Sandy Ridge and Stranger’s Home, Temperance Hill and Three Brothers, Union Valley and Urbana, Violet Hill and Virginia, Walnut Bottoms and Water Creek, Yellow Creek and Zion.
To continue in this vein, here are some poems about cemeteries from the website ablemuse.com.
HIDE-AND-SEEK- Robert Francis
Here where the dead lie hidden
Too well ever to speak,
Three children unforbidden
are playing hide-and-seek.
What if for such a hiding
These stones were not designed?
The dead are far from chiding;
The living need not mind.
Too soon the stones that hid them
Anonymously in play
Will learn their names and bid them
Come back to hide to stay.
MARK TWAIN’S EULOGY TO HIS DAUGHTER OLIVIA SUSAN CLEMENS
Warm summer sun,
shine brightly here,
Warm Southern wind,
blow softly here,
Green sod above,
lie light, lie light,
Good night, dear heart;
good night, good night.
IN A DISUSED GRAVEYARD - Robert Frost
The living come with grassy tread
To read the gravestones on the hill;
The graveyard draws the living still,
But never anymore the dead.
The verses in it say and say:
"The ones who living come today
To read the stones and go away
Tomorrow dead will come to stay."
So sure of death the marbles rhyme,
Yet can't help marking all the time
How no one dead will seem to come.
What is it men are shrinking from?
It would be easy to be clever
And tell the stones: Men hate to die
And have stopped dying now forever.
I think they would believe the lie.
This close to Memorial Day, let us stop and remember.
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| Cameron Cemetery, Salem Community, Benton AR, photo by PL |
by Pat Laster
I know someone who—when anyone tells her about anything—always has a better, more intriguing tale about the subject. I call her Ms. One-Upper—behind her back of course. I don’t want to be one-upping Ms. N., but her last week’s column listing of cemeteries hit me right in the Compendium of Journal Jottings that I’ve been amassing for several years.
I have a list–now, by adding those she named that I didn’t have, thank-you-very-much, Ms. N.—of 386 cemeteries in Arkansas. That's not complete, just ones I've come across in my readings.
Some of the more colorful names in MY list are: Ash Grove and Aunt Dilly, Barnishaw, Barren Fork, Brush Creek and Burnt Schoolhouse; Chalybeate Springs, Chickalah and Chinquapin;
Daniel and Dongola, Eagle and Eden, Free Gift and Free House, Gaster Hill and Graves, Hephzibah and Honey Hill, Ida Mission and Ivy Chapel,
Jerusalem and Judsonia, King and Koshkonong, Lick Creek and Lick Prairie, Maynard Bend and Morning Star, Needmore and Nogo, Old Jennie Lind and Old Texas, Puddin Ridge and Pumpkin Bend, and Quiet.
Red Doors and Rush Fork, Sandy Ridge and Stranger’s Home, Temperance Hill and Three Brothers, Union Valley and Urbana, Violet Hill and Virginia, Walnut Bottoms and Water Creek, Yellow Creek and Zion.
To continue in this vein, here are some poems about cemeteries from the website ablemuse.com.
HIDE-AND-SEEK- Robert Francis
Here where the dead lie hidden
Too well ever to speak,
Three children unforbidden
are playing hide-and-seek.
What if for such a hiding Here where the dead lie hidden
Too well ever to speak,
Three children unforbidden
are playing hide-and-seek.
These stones were not designed?
The dead are far from chiding;
The living need not mind.
Too soon the stones that hid them
Anonymously in play
Will learn their names and bid them
Come back to hide to stay.
MARK TWAIN’S EULOGY TO HIS DAUGHTER OLIVIA SUSAN CLEMENS
Warm summer sun,
shine brightly here,
Warm Southern wind,
blow softly here,
Green sod above,
lie light, lie light,
Good night, dear heart;
good night, good night.
IN A DISUSED GRAVEYARD - Robert Frost
The living come with grassy tread
To read the gravestones on the hill;
The graveyard draws the living still,
But never anymore the dead.
The verses in it say and say:
"The ones who living come today
To read the stones and go away
Tomorrow dead will come to stay."
So sure of death the marbles rhyme,
Yet can't help marking all the time
How no one dead will seem to come.
What is it men are shrinking from?
It would be easy to be clever
And tell the stones: Men hate to die
And have stopped dying now forever.
I think they would believe the lie.
Pat here:To read the gravestones on the hill;
The graveyard draws the living still,
But never anymore the dead.
The verses in it say and say:
"The ones who living come today
To read the stones and go away
Tomorrow dead will come to stay."
So sure of death the marbles rhyme,
Yet can't help marking all the time
How no one dead will seem to come.
What is it men are shrinking from?
It would be easy to be clever
And tell the stones: Men hate to die
And have stopped dying now forever.
I think they would believe the lie.
This close to Memorial Day, let us stop and remember.
4 comments:
Nice!
Wow! 386! Do you have Violet Cemetery in Osceola? It is beautiful.
I do now! Thanks. Thanks, too, Freeda for your comment. pl
Nice post. Do you have Gum Springs Cemetery in Searcy? It's where my family is buried and where my ashes will reside someday. It used to be out of town, but the city is encroaching.
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