epitaph
warning or welcome
sad farewell
from the grave
darkness of despair
deep message
Jill and I were tracking the call of a Tui in The Napier Botanic Gardens in New Zealand when we chanced upon the historical nineteenth century section of the Napier cemetery .Time stood still for us as we slowly wandered amongst the graves beautifully adorned with semi wild flowers and creepers. Reading the headstones in old graveyards is always fascinating and ones imagination can wander with some of the more detailed ones. What tragedy lay behind Caroline’s death? was it an accident? Who wrote this first person epitaph? I took the photo and have re visited the image several times to ponder. There is almost a touch of fictional writing within these words of the last line. And we missed the Tui that time.
Just the image for the one a week Photo Challenge word challenge and this week it is FICTION. This is my contribution . For this years 52 weekly challenges planned by Cathy and Sandra visit Cathy’s blog at https://nanacathydotcom.wordpress.com/one-a-week-photo-challenge-2017/
The second haiku has been added later for Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Poetry Prompt Challenge 154 Darkness & Deep. To see many other haiku poems using these challenge words hit this link https://ronovanwrites.com/2017/06/19/ronovanwrites-weekly-haiku-poetry-prompt-challenge-154-darknessdeep/
Haiku hound 
Enigmatic. I have spent many a peaceful hour reading gravestones and pondering on the stories behind them. One of my favourites is in Tyneham Village: https://daffodilwild.wordpress.com/2015/02/19/tyneham-village/
Thank you for your entry Denis – a goodun!
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Thanks Sandra, we chase distant relatives in country cemeteries sometimes, its quite moving to find them. I will check your post.
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A very fitting haiku Denis. It is an intriguing epitaph and it almost reads as if it was channelled from beyond the grave as a message of comfort.
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Thanks Xenia. That was one of the possibilities I thought of too, there are others, some a bit darker.
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Looks like an interesting cemetery Denis. They are always nice and peaceful with nice gardens, and the headstones are always interesting and, on occasion, puzzling, like the one you found of Caroline.
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It was a hidden treasure of a place and we found it looking for a bird.
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Oh I love a graveyard! Peaceful and so many stories to read. A most suitable subject for this challenge.
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We could have spent much longer there however the Tui called again and we went looking.
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My ex loves to visit old graveyards. He has many a photograph of touching headstone writings. They evoke such connections to people we will never know any other way.
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They do and bring history to life for the reader.
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Very curious indeed, Denis.
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Some research was needed to solve this one.
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Wow, yours and Sandra’s take on this week’s photo prompt both have an eerie feel to me! Not because yours is based in a cemetery but simply because of the unusual nature of that inscription.
I spent many, many hours as a child in cemeteries while my genealogy loving grandparents rubbed the stones for state recordkeeping purposes. Great memories really.
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I was looking for a bird at the time but was quite distracted by the feel of the setting and then saw this .It is the most unusual epitaph we have ever seen .
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Same here. 🙂
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I like your haiku very much. The epitaph is intriguing … questioning it I wonder what kind of fall … a literal one or one that inspired murder perhaps.
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Thanks Janice. I agree, there are so many questions raised by this epitaph.
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So sad, so young, I wonder what happened to her. Thought provoking epitaph.
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A short story or epic poem is a possibility . I would have given the headstone image to my year 9 English class as a creative expression challenge in my former teaching days.
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Wandering through graveyards can certainly cause some sad ruminations. I’m glad to finally catch up with you again Denis. Somehow in my moving blogs I seem to have lost contact with some bloggers I enjoyed talking to you. You might be interested in my new haiku prompt site. Here’s a link if you want to take a look https://ontheroadprompts.wordpress.com/
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It can be a meditative experience Suzanne. I will have a look at the site, I noticed a couple of other poet/photographers i follow have visited.
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That ‘first person’ is curious. I got taken with a whole family once, all buried in a church grave yard. So much so, that I ended up looking up their history. Turns out they owned all of Queens & some of Long Island ( when it was farmland). And the dad was on the board of the first Bank in NY. Very interesting. Everybody died so young though. Nice work on this Denis:)
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Very curious, it stopped me in my tracks when I saw that headstone. The saddest grave we have seen is in Swansea Tasmania where a family 6 children between 2 and 12 years drowned in a shipwreck .
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Oh, my goodness…sad indeed!
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