26 Comments
User's avatar
Leon Brown, Jr.'s avatar

Unnoticed among them, a still queen

Lost in the maze of this earthly affair

Brings to mind, to me, so many women

And mothers......

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Patris's avatar

The ground is dense with love

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Weston Parker's avatar

here is your line so fraught with power...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here in this graveyard,

although it’s quiet

you can still hear,

because it's so quiet,

the echos from services

long past. You see,

the more heartfelt the wail,

the longer the echo reverberates,

wrapping around headstones,

resting among ceramic flowers,

in that cherub’s cupped palms.

When a loss is wept

and the tears pour

as if to never stop,

the ground is dense with love.

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Patris's avatar

Speechless, Wes.

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Weston Parker's avatar

that sounds just like line numero uno of a poem as yet to be....

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Patris's avatar

xxx

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Richard Blaisdell's avatar

The passing spirit’s music plays

Heard notes sharp G cleft written

Silent she slides unnoticed into the night.

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Timothy Fitzpatrick's avatar

I think I know that woman.

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Joshua Conner's avatar

This reminds me of a favorite song. I know many have covered this but I believe all would die lacking having not listened to this version at least once in your lifetime.

“I am Stretched on your Grave” by Kate Rusby

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Joan Livingston's avatar

Ironically, D.H. Lawrence's ashes were mixed in concrete for a block at a chapel north of Taos, NM, on a "ranch" he purchased with the manuscript of Sons and Lovers. I visited it several times when I lived there.

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Richard Blaisdell's avatar

That is a Taos hot springs warming inspiration bubbling up from the depths of hidden treasures. Thanks for information.

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Joan Livingston's avatar

I do have a photo of it. Maybe I'll do my next Substack on it.

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Richard Blaisdell's avatar

Yes a photo memory moment.

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Patris's avatar

Did you sense he’d been trapped in it?

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Patris's avatar

This fact horrified me.

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Joan Livingston's avatar

There is a reason behind this. When D.H.'s widow returned from Italy to New Mexico, she was concerned that his ashes would be taken. According to the story, there had been a rivalry for his attention with Mabel Doge Luhan, a wealthy woman who drew a lot of famous writers and artists to Taos. Mabel traded the property for a first edition of one of his manuscripts. Just an interesting story from another era.

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Patris's avatar

The Plumed Serpent was that manuscript-

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Joan Livingston's avatar

No, Sons and Lovers.

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Patris's avatar

Must go to reread biography/ sorry!

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Patris's avatar

I’d read there was body-snatching afoot. Had someone physically taken the body? I must look it up. My young mind (at the time) was illogically stunned, since history of filled with these incredible attachment to body parts. I guess though that I felt the oppression of being locked in concrete.

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Joan Livingston's avatar

He died in Italy and his widow brought his ashes to a place north of Taos NM where she created the shrine. There was no body snatching.

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Patris's avatar

Apologies I’d confused where he orignal headstone was - and know now his ashes were likely scattered in the Mediterranean rather than bound in concrete in Taos.

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Joan Livingston's avatar

It is a controversy about that. But according to the DH Lawrence Ranch, the ashes are there.

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BB Borne's avatar

Quite a different take from “Horseman pass by!”

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David's avatar

Oh yes

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Oganga Mangiti's avatar

Such a beautiful and heartfelt piece! Raw emotions!

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