TO A DEAD MAN
By : Carl Sandburg


OVER the dead line we have called to you
To come across with a word to us,
Some beaten whisper of what happens
Where you are over the dead line
Deaf to our calls and voiceless.

The flickering shadows have not answered
Nor your lips sent a signal
Whether love talks and roses grow
And the sun breaks at morning
Splattering the sea with crimson.

WELCOME DEATH

………….

And out of these and thee,
I make a scene, a song, brief (not fear of thee,
Nor gloom's ravines, nor bleak, nor dark—for I do not fear thee,
Nor celebrate the struggle, or contortion, or hard-tied knot),

Of the broad blessed light and perfect air, with meadows, rippling tides, and trees
and flowers and grass,

And the low hum of living breeze—and in the midst God's beautiful eternal right
hand,

Thee, holiest minister of Heaven—thee, envoy, usherer, guide at last of all,
Rich, florid, loosener of the stricture-knot call'd life,
Sweet, peaceful, welcome Death.

(Death Valley, Walt Whitman)
.

St Martin Church's Cemetery

This church is the oldest church in England still in use. It is a fascinating building with an important history - the starting point of the revival of Christianity in England in 597 AD by Saint Augustine. St. Martin Church was most probably build as a Roman church in the 4th century outside the walls of Canterbury.

The churchyard contains the graves of many notable local families and well-known people including Thomas Sidnet Cooper, RA (artist) and Mary Tourtel, the creator of Rupert Bear.

Three Tombs


St Cuthbert's (also known as West Church) contains some of the oldest headstones in Edinburgh and, being located at the west end of Princes Street, makes an ideal diversion from the crowds of shoppers.

Photograph was made with Hasselblad 501C, 50mm Carl Zeiss Plannar lens and using yellow filter. The film is Kodak Tmax 100 rated at 64, developed with Rodinal in N process using semistand agitation. Printed in MGIV FB Ilford

DEATH'S VALLEY

By Walt Whitman

NAY, do not dream, designer dark,
Thou hast portray'd or hit thy theme entire:
I, hoverer of late by this dark valley, by its confines, having glimpses of it,
Here enter lists with thee, claiming my right to make a symbol too.

For I have seen many wounded soldiers die,
After dread suffering—have seen their lives pass off with smiles;
And I have watch'd the death-hours of the old; and seen the infant die;
The rich, with all his nurses and his doctors;
And then the poor, in meagreness and poverty;
And I myself for long, O Death, have breathed my every breath
Amid the nearness and the silent thought of thee.

And out of these and thee,
I make a scene, a song, brief (not fear of thee,
Nor gloom's ravines, nor bleak, nor dark—for I do not fear thee,
Nor celebrate the struggle, or contortion, or hard-tied knot),

Of the broad blessed light and perfect air, with meadows, rippling tides, and trees
and flowers and grass,
And the low hum of living breeze—and in the midst God's beautiful eternal right
hand,
Thee, holiest minister of Heaven—thee, envoy, usherer, guide at last of all,
Rich, florid, loosener of the stricture-knot call'd life,
Sweet, peaceful, welcome Death.

Photograph was made with Hasselblad 501C, 50mm Carl Zeiss Plannar lens and using yellow filter. The film is Kodak Tmax 100 rated at 64, developed with Rodinal in N process using semistand agitation. Printed in MGIV FB Ilford paper developed in Dektol

ST CUTHBERT'S CHURCHYARD

St Cuthbert's (also known as West Church) contains some of the oldest headstones in Edinburgh and, being located at the west end of Princes Street, makes an ideal diversion from the crowds of shoppers. The land lying immediately around the Church has been a place of Christian burial for a thousand years. There is a record of over 1000 graves and this was the work of John Smith.

I used a 6x6 Hasselblad 501C and 80mm zeiss plannar lens with yellow filter. The film was Tmax 400 rated at 320, developed in Rodinal, and the print was made on Ilford Multigrade IV FB Glossy paper developed in Dektol and Ansco 120.