Poetry Thursday – The Bone Yard

I’m extremely fortunate to have a large picture window where I work. My office overlooks an eight-lane highway, which is adjacent to an absolutely gorgeous cemetery with huge ancient trees and very old stones. The contrast between the highway and the cemetery is mesmerizing – and so I lost myself again in this “in-between” place for a while last Saturday. All the while thinking about the contrast – life flying by at sixty miles an hour, while only five feet away beyond the fence, a pastoral scene of death shepherded into untidy rows. And then, of course, I couldn’t help wondering if the dead had forgiven themselves, their loved ones, mankind – whether they had practiced forgiveness in life, or whether they ever knew what difference it makes. My daydream and meditations produced the following poem.

The cemetery in this photo is located in Worm, Germany. (I'd die for a view like this!!)

The Bone Yard

How abruptly this world ends
against your fence it swiftly stops
and everywhere the grasses bend
as mourners pace the coffin tops

In this place where time stands still
and ancient trees they grow unchecked
their boughs arch verdantly but still
they shadow those whose lives are wrecked

Swallowed by this hallowed ground
these worn out souls lie undigested
learn the meaning of repose
and in the end indeed are wrested

Rows of unforgiven souls
all casualties of life and love
escaped the world through these dark holes
and scarred the ones they left above

Do not wait till life has ended
as so many buried yet
and to the grave with wounds un-mended
like old men who breathe regret

Dennis Tkon Copyright 2007