Presence in a Cemetery

For this TT post, I decided to break away from my usual research indulgence and consider the whole "context" of one cemetery.
This is a view of Flinders Cemetery on the southern end of the Mornington Peninsula..
Each time I have wandered here, I have felt the trees add a distinct "Australian painting" presence.


The trees seem like grand mothers, gently nurturing the souls who rest here.




A soft, quiet place
Where the white boughs of Nature
Are the earth angels


Linking to:
Taphophile Tragics

Amy

The unusual presentation of this grave at Flinders cemetery - at the southern reaches of Mornington Peninsula on Westernport Bay - attracted me.
The hat seemed to strike a cheeky, casual pose and the plaque seemed to oddly grace what looks like wooden sign posts at a cross road.
Not till I viewed this grave more closely did I realise that this was not a grave for Kenneth and Amy.
Kenneth's surname was Amy.

Grave with character
Jaunty tilt of an old hat
Some life still lives on


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Selwyn Pritchard's World

This memorial is at Flinders Cemetery on Westernport Bay, the eastern side of the Mornington Peninsula.
I was intrigued by the "poet and teacher" caption. Time to do a Google journey.
Selwyn Hughes migrated from Wales to Australia.
He discovered that an aboriginal poet had the name of Selwyn Hughes, so he wrote under the name of Selwyn Pritchard.

Selwyn's own website - including his biography and audios of poems - is HERE!

But there is more intrigue surrounding this grave!

It is covered with shells and even a couple of shell necklaces.
And they are loosely placed on the grave.
I did another Google journey.
Apparently, a large number of graves in Texas have shells, but the the shells are fixed.
One website suggests it is a pre-Egyptian practice - stones and coins fall in this category.
(There are a few smooth stones mixed in with the shells!)
Many websites believe that the shells symbolise some form of after life, even re-incarnation.
But I like the idea a few websites propose - that the seashells are symbols of the sea.
(And Flinders is right by the Tasman Sea which becomes the Pacific Ocean.)
The sea carried him here and will return him home...perhaps connected with the tragedy in the UK!



Here is one of Selwyn's poems In The Sleep of Reason:
Like an owl in the ruins of truth I lament
Not the embarrassments of youth
Nor agonies of middle age
But that In my dotage I should see
The triumph of demagoguery
Merciless aggression and the future
Repeating the past

Let my voice trouble
The glutted sleep
Of the righteous.
*********

Here is my haiku response:
In beauty's shambles
May the owl's silent wisdom
Shower some pure light*********




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