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The Hours

Cometh the hour

Cometh the day

All we wanted

Was our due

There are no more false prophets

With empty begging bowls

That promise to fill them

With riches and gold

Because when you are dead

All you feel are the nails

Pinning you to your personal cross

Until the right ship sails

Will you fall down

As we did

Sometimes without a sound

Will you see your life

Flash before you

Faster than sound

Are you prepared to hear us now

As you grovel through the pain

How does it feel

To be so slain?

 

***

 

This image has been taken in the front entrance to Ocklynge Cemetery in the courtyard that contains the chapel as well as the memorial to the war dead of the first world war, commemorating those who are buried within the cemetery in Eastbourne, East Sussex, UK.

 

Their voices still call out to us, if we are prepared to stand there and listen.

 

This work has a particular resonance for me, as not long after I took this image….about ten minutes….I fell over on my way out of the cemetery. It took me eight weeks or so to recover from concussion, cuts and bruises, as I had hit my head on the pavement, nearly broke my nose and broke my glasses, which did in fact save my eye.

 

I spent quite a lot of time reflecting on the images I had taken in this cemetery, and this one takes me right back to when I was laying on the pavement.

 

How vulnerable we are….when we are lying on the ground…in pain. I looked up at this cross…wondering how I was going to get home. But I did eventually.

 

Some people do not return….or if they do it is to be buried and remembered.

This is for the war dead everywhere, not just in this cemetery.

 

For this work I have paired it with Vaughan Williams and his classic work ‘The Lark Ascending’.

This particular performance from the violinist Hilary Hahn took my breath away in listening to such beauty, and as such, it is a balm to the soul, and I listened to it often, while I was recuperating.

 

youtu.be/IOWN5fQnzGk

 

And if you would like to see more of my work, have a look at my website at:

 

www.shelleyturnerpoetpix.com

 

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Uploaded on June 14, 2023
Taken on February 10, 2023