Book Review: Next Door To The Dead by Kathleen Driskell

Cemetery poetry may be an odd concept for mainstay readers, but for those of us who are “tombstone tourists,” this genre offers a refreshing look into our clandestine indulgences and interests.

Next Door To The Dead is Kathleen Driskell’s latest book; one I found to be irresistible. It takes an understanding of the taboos associated with writing about death, along with true empathy and respect for those living and dead to write poems brimming with thoughtfulness, heartbreak and humor. Driskell introduces us to her “neighbors” in a very matter-of-fact way because after 20 years of living next door to the cemetery, they are indeed the neighbors she’s gotten to know.

Driskell does what many of us do, wanders the cemetery in search of solace, solitude, and stories that may or may not be true, but her offerings tug at our heartstrings just the same. The poem Infant Girl Smithfield leaves the reader aching to comfort a stillborn child while the waiting tension in What Haunts is something most of us have felt when viewing the desecration cemetery vandals have left behind.

We listen in to Tchaenhotep, an Egyptian mummy whose every-day existence was thwarted in death by an odd fame; she is now on display in a local museum.

In Lament for the Crow, Driskell bids us to pause beside her, considering the demise of a crow and the affect it has among his resident flock.

The author is an expert at unraveling the secrets and stories buried in the local graveyard, and by invoking the voices of the dead, she shares her personal folklore about them in prose that will return to haunt you as you meander through a graveyard.

Next Door To The Dead will entice those who have no interest in cemeteries to hesitantly tag along, and in the process, captivate their imaginations. Taphophiles will find the fact that Driscoll can put into words those thoughts we’ve all had while searching and reflecting in a quiet cemetery, extraordinary. And most tombstone tourists will agree, that is both enlightening, and enchanting.

~ Joy

About the Author:

Kathleen Driskell

Kathleen Driskell is associate editor of the Louisville Review and professor of creative writing at Spalding University, where she also helps direct the low-residency MFA in Writing program. She is the author of numerous books and collections, including Laughing Sickness and Seed across Snow.

Book Details:

Next Door To The Dead by Kathleen Driscoll

Published by University Press of Kentucky (2015)

The 9/11 Memorial – Remembering The Day

Today marks the fourteenth anniversary of the terrorists attacks on the United States – September 11, 2001.  On that day, our lives, indeed our world, changed in ways we could never foresee.

One way we Americans have commemorated the day is with the 9/11 Memorial. Completed in 2011, the memorial is one of the largest in the world.

The purpose of the memorial is to commemorate the lives of the 2,977 who died on that September day: at the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and aboard commercial airliner Flight 93 that crashed in a Pennsylvania field killing all on board.

9/11 Memorial

The memorial is made up of a museum, performing arts center, and a park with two pools and the largest man-made waterfall in the world.

Inside Founders Hall

Museum exhibits are divided into three categories: the events leading up to September 11^th, an in-depth look at the actual day from historical, memorial and physical perspectives, and the aftermath including immediate rescue and recovery, and now, how our world has been forever changed.

But another aspect of the 9/11 Memorial is to also remind us to step forward and volunteer. We can do so by honoring first responders, memorializing those who were killed, educating children on the events that happened on that day. Or in a broader scope by showing appreciation to our troops, sponsoring a tribute to local EMTs, honoring search and rescue dogs for their service to the community; donating time at a shelter, nursing home, or at a local park or cemetery. There is always something we can do to give back and say “Thank You” for sacrifices made.

If you’re interested in finding out more ways to volunteer and serve, visit the Corporation for National and Community Service website.

What a beautiful and fitting way to "remember the day that changed us forever."

~ Joy

Shine On Harvest Moon

Although the moon is estimated to be 400 billion years old, man’s fascination with it has never waned. Down through the ages, we have worshipped the moon, given it human attributes, created folklore around it, and given it a different name for each month of the year.

Moon Phases

The moon passes through eight phases each month and has numerous stories and folklore connected to each phase. Our ancestors used the moon phases as a guide for planting, and many farmers still do today.

According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac:

• Moonrise occurring in the evening brings fair weather.
• The New Moon and first quarter, or waxing phases, are considered fertile and wet.
• The new and first-quarter phases, known as the light of the Moon, are considered good for planting above-ground crops, putting down sod, grafting trees, and transplanting.
• From full Moon through the last quarter, or the dark of the Moon, is the best time for killing weeds, thinning, pruning, mowing, cutting timber, and planting below-ground crops.
• The time just before the full Moon is considered particularly wet, and is best for planting during drought conditions.
• The Moon also affects our weather and our emotions.

The Chinese believed that instead of one moon there were twelve, one for each month so each was given a different name.

The Native Americans also had different names for each month based on the seasons. Today, these full Moon names include:

January = Wolf Moon (Wolves are hungry and go in search of food now)

February = Snow Moon (Heaviest snows happen during this month)

March = Worm Moon (The ground thaws and earthworms return)

April = Pink Moon (Wild flowers begin to bloom)

May = Flower Moon (Flowers are now abundant)

June = Strawberry Moon (Strawberries are ripe)

July = Thunder Moon (Thunderstorms are frequent)

August  = Grain Moon (Grain is becoming ripe)

September = Harvest Moon (Farmers harvest later by moonlight)

October = Hunter’s Moon (Wild game is getting ready for winter)

November = Frosty Moon (Frost is now a common occurrence)

December = Long Nights Moon (These are the longest nights of the year)

Most religions and traditional festivals are scheduled to occur during certain phases of the Moon.

Man’s Interaction with the Moon

Galileo Galilei

In 1609, Galileo Galilei was the first person to use a telescope to look at the moon. With 20-fold magnification, he saw valleys, hills and seas.

Luna One

It wasn’t until 350 years later, on January 2, 1959, that the Soviet Union launched Luna 1 and man made his first fly-by, only to discover that the Moon didn't have a magnetic field.

On February 3, 1966, the Soviets landed Luna 9 on the Moon’s surface. Although this was sixth spacecraft the Soviet Union had sent to the Moon, it was the first to actually land on the surface.

Then, just three years later, the United States not only landed Apollo 11 on the Moon, but on July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong made “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” as he set foot on the Moon’s surface.

Most recently on December 11, 1972, Gene Cernan walked on the Moon as part of the Apollo 17 mission.

Moon Folklore

Several ancient cultures worshiped the Moon and a Moon Goddess connected with birth and reproduction.

The Chinese believed that Chang’e, their Moon Goddess, had only one companion living with her on the Moon, the Jade Rabbit. The Moon Rabbit can be seen pounding the elixir of life for Chang'e with a mortar and pedestal. Interestingly enough, Buddhists, Aztecs and Native Americans also handed down a version of this myth.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the Man in the Moon is seen as a human face in the full moon.

Thanks to poet English John Heywood, for centuries people thought that the Moon was made of green cheese -  "Ye set circumquaques to make me beleue/ Or thinke, that the moone is made of gréene chéese."

It is also believed that the moon can affect your emotions. It has been rumored that a full Moon can lead people into madness  (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde); cause an increase in murders, and can be the catalyst that turns people into werewolves.

Another rumor is that the United States never really landed on the Moon – it was all a hoax to scare the Soviet Union into thinking we were more powerful than we were. But then, rumors that the Nazis had a base located on the Moon lasted for several years after WWII ended ...

Maybe Robert Louis Stevenson summed it up best in his poem

The Moon.

The moon has a face like the clock in the hall;
She shines on thieves on the garden wall,
On streets and fields and harbour quays,
And birdies asleep in the forks of the trees.

The squalling cat and the squeaking mouse,
The howling dog by the door of the house,
The bat that lies in bed at noon,
All love to be out by the light of the moon.

But all of the things that belong to the day
Cuddle to sleep to be out of her way;
And flowers and children close their eyes
Till up in the morning the sun shall arise. 

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

And this year, during our Harvest moon in September, you’ll also have a chance to see it become a Blood Moon; this is another name for a total lunar eclipse. This eclipse will be visible in North America, South America, Europe, west Asia and parts of Africa.

The eclipse is scheduled to take place the evening of September 27 – September 28, 2015 and last for several hours.  To find out what time this will occur in your region, click here: Total Lunar Eclipse, and make plans to enjoy it now!

~ Joy

Gone to the Summerland

Recently I saw a grave with the inscription, “Gone to the Summerland” and wondered what it meant.

It seems every religion has a place where the soul goes when the body dies. For Wiccans that place is called the Summerland. It’s not like the Christian version of heaven or hell but more of a crossover place for the soul to await its reincarnation and a new life.

Wicca and some pagan religions describe the Summerland as a place with grassy fields and flowing rivers where it is eternally summer. Others have described it as a swirl of energies, which coexist with the God and Goddess.

The name Summerland was coined by the Theosophical Society, which was founded in 1875 in New York City. The organization remains active in more than 50 countries around the globe.

Theosophist Charles Webster Leadbeater taught that if you were a good person in life, you would go to the Summerland, a place to rest your soul, review the past and reunite with loved ones, between incarnations. This belief is similar to that held in Buddhism, Hinduism and other Indian religions.

Most Wiccans believe in the Summerland and the spiral of life, death and rebirth, but beliefs vary from group to group just as different denominations of Christianity have different beliefs.

Once the cycles of reincarnation are completed, it is believed that the soul goes on to Nirvana; a divine and blissful existence.

~ Joy

Book Review: Burden of Wings by Mauro Marinelli

A new art book for the cemetery enthusiast is out, one that captures the true essence of the graveyard as a gateway between the living and the dead, with inspirational photos.

Mauro Marinelli

Burden of Wings is a well-composed book of cemetery photographs taken with, of all things, a Polaroid camera. Photographer Mauro Marinelli shoots with a well-trained eye, offering the reader what he calls “the instant and the everlasting” all in one shot.

The beauty of this instamatic camera process is that you see exactly what this moment looked like at the time the shutter snapped; there’s no digital manipulation, no Photo-shopping to make the image more dramatic, more enticing, more moody. 

Just life as it existed in a cemetery at a certain moment in time.

Marinelli uses this camera to his advantage, letting the plastic lens soften the focus a bit, making the images become almost real to us. His focus on hands: clasped, reaching, comforting, quieting … allows us to identify with the statue while creating a subconscious wish for movement; a will to release the stilled hand from its pose, allowing it to complete its movement, and to continue the moment …

But as we know, in death, physical movement is gone, no longer feasible, and with these sculptures and photos, no longer necessary to capture our attention, to evoke a deeper sentiment, or to execute a heartrending sadness.

Marinelli provides us with the essence of each stone, managing to coax out our emotions regardless of our wishes.  With cogent intent, he “commits the act of photography” - offering the reader a photo; one which holds the passion of a two lovers forever locked in a kiss, another depicts the weariness of an angel’s shoulders as her wings begin to droop protectively around her.

With Burden of Wings, we are called to interpret each photo with our emotions, and with what we see. As Marinelli explains, we are “looking into the abyss of the unknown from a safe seat in the arena of the living.” How true, and how exquisite the journey!

~Joy Neighbors

Book Details:
Burden of Wings by Mauro Marinelli

Published by Kehrer Verlag (2015)

Available for purchase at

Amazon   Website: www.mauromarinelli.com

Dollhouse Grave Markers

There was a time when every little girl wanted a dollhouse. It didn’t matter if it was a fancy, all-out designer dollhouse, or a cardboard box decorated with odds and end; what was important was that you had a “house” of your very own to decorate as you pleased, and a place to play with those very special dolls.

Here are the stories of six little girls and a boy; all promised a dollhouse at some time, and how each promise was lived up to … even after death.

The Keating Children

One of the oldest dollhouse markers indicates the grave of not one, but three babies from the same family who all coincidentally died on the second day of the month. Built in New St. Joseph Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio by John Keating, a stone mason in the city, the two-story dollhouse was constructed in remembrance of his daughter, Mary Julia (1867 -1868), son Eddie (1874 -1876), and niece Mary Agnes Keating (1875 -1876). 

The intricately carved structure has steps leading up to the front door with hand-carved roof shingles and decorative stonework on the sides. The house has fallen into disrepair, but at one time, carved furniture could be found inside. The marker is carved with the words, “To Our Little Darlings” and bears the children’s names along with this inscription:

“One by one our leaves are falling, fading day by day,

and in silence heaven is calling, one by one our lambs away.”

Vivian May Allison

Vivian was only five years old when she died just before the turn of the century (1894 – 1899). She was buried in the Connersville City Cemetery in Connersville, Indiana and her grave is marked by a distinctive one-story dollhouse; the house her father had been building as a surprise for her before her unexpected death.

Vivian’s father, Horace Allison was a carpenter and did the actual construction of the house, and her mother Carrie sewed the curtains for the windows and a rug for the floor. The building has a tin roof, glass windows and its original woodwork and nails. Some of Vivian’s favorite dolls and toys were placed inside. Today, volunteers in this small community continue to care for the dollhouse, making repairs when needed, and lovingly watching over it.

Lova Cline

Lova Cline (1902 – 1908) was born without neurological or muscular control over her body. Her father, George built her a wooden dollhouse five-feet-tall and filled it with furniture he hand-carved. Her parents would carry her out to see the dollhouse, and Lova spent most of her days gazing out at it. Then, when she was six years old, Lova died. Her parents had the dollhouse moved to her grave in the Arlington East Hill Cemetery in Rushville, Indiana where Lova's toys were tucked lovingly inside.

When Lova's mother died in 1945, her father wanted the dollhouse destroyed, but the cemetery caretaker convinced him to allow the dollhouse to stay. One year later, George died and the dollhouse, along with Lova's remains, were moved to rest beside her parent's grave. Today, a plaque telling the Cline's story is located in front of the house and on it is the only known photo of Lova, in her casket.

Dorothy Marie Harvey

The year was 1931; over 6 million Americans could not find work, so they began moving across the country, hoping that this “Great Depression” would be short-lived. Tennessee was hard-hit and jobs were scarce as Mr. Harvey discovered. But all of that was forgotten when 5 year old Dorothy Marie (1926 – 1931) came down with the measles. There was little to be done. On June 1, Dorothy died and the residents of Medina, Tennessee pulled together to assist the Harvey family in burying her in Hope Hill Cemetery. Devastated, the family had to move on, searching for work. The community put up a stone to mark Dorothy’s grave and built a structure over it.

Many claim this is a dollhouse, but since the gravestone is protected inside the house, (which has no curtains or furniture,) it appears to be a grave house; a building constructed to protect the grave and marker from the elements and nature. Grave houses were a southern tradition for hundreds of years, up until WWII. It would make sense that the community would build one over Dorothy’s grave as a symbolic way to protect her resting place. It may also have been another way to draw visitors over to Dorothy’s grave, getting people to stop and visit her since her family was gone.

Roselind Nadine Earles

The holidays were approaching when four-year-old Roselind Nadine Earles (1929 – 1933) was diagnosed with diphtheria in 1933. For Christmas, she wanted a dollhouse. Her father quickly began building one, but her condition worsened and she told him, “Me want it now.” Just one week short of Christmas, on December 18, Nadine died. She was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Lanette, Alabama, and her parents had the partially completed brick dollhouse moved to her grave and finished with a fireplace, metal awnings over the windows, a front porch and mailbox.

Inside, the parents placed her dolls, a tricycle, teddy bears, toys and a china tea set.  Nadine’s grave stone is also located inside the house with the inscription, “Our Darling Little Girl, Sweetest in the World.” Along with her name, birth and death dates are the words, “Me want it now.” A picture of Nadine’s birthday party, held at the dollhouse the following April after her death, was added later and can be seen from the window. The dollhouse is still decorated for each season by local residents with extra care taken to create a beautiful Christmas.

~ Joy