Just before the road goes down across the Goobang Creek
There's a fenced off area where markers stand or lean.
It's a pioneer cemetary and dates from way back when
Men dug for gold everywhere, and few could use a pen.
The gold rush brought all types, most good, some bad of course,
Who dug and washed the dirt, monotonous hard work,
Hoping for a bonanza. Very few got their reward
With wealth to count and hide. All thought the task worthwhile.
Many found a lonely death, with no friendly face nearby.
The cemetary holds a record of those who died close by,
Some were miners, some were farmers, some just passing nigh.
I wander in and look aound, read what names I find
And wonder what they looked like, what was their daily grind.
Were they prospectors, salesmen, or were they passing through
To seek their fame and fortune in a land so strange and new.
History has a habit of recording dull events; births and deaths
And marriages, and where the squatters made their place
And who became the mayor when a township came to be;
But if the headstones in the cemetary had either voice or pen
A wondrous lot of stories would surface once again.
Author notes
About 5 miles from the boundary of my home town lies this old cemetery. Sadly neglected, run down with many wooden grave markers rotten and falling over. The last remnants of a collection of perhaps prospectors camps. When the town was built and developed on its present site the old cemetery was left to the ravages of the elements. Surviving family members of those iterred there either moved away from the area, or simply forgot about the old cemetery.
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Beautiful write...it's a shame the way so many old cemetaries are neglected and forgotten...we have one not too far away that gets vandalized a lot, near the heart of Pensacola, Fl...they restore it and it happens again...just always seems to be a target, reasons unknown...
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It is a shame that old cemeterys become target for vandals to try to destroy. There is one in a city not too far from here that has had to have security fences erected to protect the history of the area that is contained on the graves stones etc. Many thanks for your visit and kind comments.
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too true my friend. I imagine that not many today could handle the lack of comfort... strange, but this got me thinking of the ANZACs,... I know strange, but I did warn you
cheers
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Not strange mate, I wonder how many ANZACs are in similar graves somewhere in the world. I know there are 4000 of them in Bomana War Cemetary in PNG. My poem "We Must not Forget "refersto Bomana and has a photo with it. I appreciate your comments my friend and thank you for you continuing support.
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they gave soooo much mate, to climb those trenches, knowing, and without flinching, is something I today still can not quite fathom, just amazes me every single time mate.
but there are many from all sides, and thats the biggest tragedy. -
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My Dad went off to the trenches in WW1 and two uncles never came back from WW2. When I asked Dad about his doings in the trenches he just said: " you don't wanna know , boy, you don't wanna know" He never spoke anymore about it all.
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A Cemetery gives us the choice to go or not to.
at least we have somewhere to go for a time
to remember. I moved away from where I buried my Husband and I do try go there but it's an 8hr drive away. love the poem had me thinking xxxxx
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Many thanks for your great comments. I appreciate how you must feel not being able to visit as often as yo would like. I am in a similar situation with my parents graves. Not only are they in separate towns but I do not live close to either.[Parents separated many years ago] The old countries like europe and such must have an awfullot of cemeterys hidden away or just lost under hay fields. So many stories left untold.
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Lots of Old Cemetaries in the world...not flowers, nobody prays at the grave...
Lots of stories buried in forgotten yards. Memories completely erased.
Walking amog the graves we try to imagine stories of people we have never known.
When I go to a Cemetery and see ancient graves, so many thoughts come to my mind. I feel a sense of emptiness. Only a photo, a name and dates...
Very beautiful poem. -
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A great many thanks to you Jasmine. Here in Australia our history is only about 250 years back in time. In Europe and other countries history goes back thousands of years. I cannot imagine the untold stories there must be buried with those who died so many years ago. Just a name and maybe a date.
A definite sense of emptiness, and curiosity. Who were they, how did they live, why are they where they are now, the questions arise all the time.
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"Many found a lonely death, with no friendly face nearby..."
A mile from where my father (and grandfather) were born is an "Old Cemetary" by the sea, "rbruce". It had been a mass grave for Spanish seaman who'd died "en mass" from some sad plague on the ship- the sight being known as a burying ground the first English settlers, they used it as a graveyard. Today it is a thicket of woods in a hay field where the few remaining headstones that wern't stolen are illegable...but you ask the right question! If their stories could be told!
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In my travels around I have found several "old cemetery's". Most are little different from your description of the one near where your father was born. What stories are buried with them. Sadly we shall never know. While working in Papua New Guinea in the 60's I was there when a bulldozer preparing a construction site uncovered a mass grave of Japanese soldiers. They, too, would have stories to tell. The powers that be took over that one and I never found out what happened.
I thank you for your comments and thoughts my friend. The world is truly a much smaller place with the internet, we are all neighbors now, just a click away. -
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The world is smaller! I don't talk to a lot of folks in town here who have visited grave yards in Papua New Guinea. Although,the man at the dry cleaners when I was a kid would scare my friends and I with stories about "the Wild Men of Borneo"!
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Great piece of history to share with us Bob. The old cemetries can tell us a lot about the history of an area. Well done.
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They are everywhere John. Neglected and virtually uncared for. The one I wrote about has had rabbit burrows in it for the last 60 years or so that I know of. One group of locals tried to do something but the powers that be only put obstacles in their way. Many thanks for your comments, my friend. I appreciate them.
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