How did the stain of past life find its place upon this silent grave?
What aged the emerald crescent’s arc, kindly blotched the written stave?
What of its words and heartfelt kiss
that left a summer’s rain amiss?
What countenance divine embraced
this site befitting, this resting place?
Through what redacted soulful truths
did heaven ride to seal the proofs?
Who stood upon this sullen ground
in saddened prayer, in whispered sound?
What happened here? Who knew the scene?
What time sustained and held between
the moments of the resting?
What moments from the fight?
Who stoops above this sacred stone,
in haunt and love each night…?
jaybluepoems 
Ooh, this is way cool. I especially like the second and fifth stanzas, as well as the last two lines.
Thank you Shawna
You did a great job with the rhyme scheme. The second one just touches the soul.
Thank you
I liked this couplet: “Who stood upon this sullen ground
in saddened prayer, in whispered sound?”
Thanks Frank!
I feel the same when walking through a cemetery… each stone raises questions. Each life is like a piece of jigsaw puzzle and I could stand a long time trying to imagine things…. and maybe it’s less the answers that matters.
Yes. The photo is from a family cemetery in Kentucky. In researching family history I’ve spent so much time in front of these stones, wondering about the lives… thanks.
I think stones are a strange way to memorialize someone once so full of life and vibrancy. But your poem is inquisitive in that you offer more life beyond the stone, in the form of questions about he who is marked by it. And what more could the dead ask for, than to be asked about?
Thanks. I always wonder about those that were there grieving, and what actually happened… what angels come to visit and protect.
What a powerful piece. I admire your narrative style and composure in it, which makes the gradual emotional upsurge feels utterly natural. Well-chosen rhymes and spotless diction. This is one of the best cemetery poems I’ve read.
Thank you. Really appreciate your kind comment.
I was drawn into your words, as if I’d written them myself, they so perfectly echoed my reveries when prowling old cemeteries. Beautiful write!
Thank you Bev. So glad it hit a chord.
Thoughts out into elegant rhyme and language. This is unique, Jay.
Thank you
those last 2 lines are so beautiful. What an ending!
Thanks!
Beautiful. 💙
Great idea for a poem. I like it a lot.
Thanks!