Elm
Elm – such a beautiful powerful tree
Wych symbolises death
A presence in the natural world.
A strength that you both share.
You were a guardian of the natural world.
Your antlers remind me
Of the ripples
of the bark
and the branches
Of an elm tree
Just like an oak tree,
You have a powerful presence.
A thoughtful one too.
A kind heart.
A sweet soul you are
I wish that I knew you alive
However, we may never have met
I understand because your kind are afraid of humans
And rightly so.
I hope that you may pass to the other side soon and not stay trapped in your skull forever.
Find your inner peace.
Gregory I
You horned soul
I can see that you had a fulfilled life
With a kind nature
There is a feisty fire within you
That only appears if need be.
But this fire fuelled you.
The horns you have,
Show your strength and the long life you had.
Then it went dark for you.
No more fresh dew on the grass
No more vast fields and rocky hills
No more of your friends
And perhaps a companion
Then you found yourself
Between places
Hearing humans around you
Admiring you
You become a life model – or should I say a death model
Being observed by many.
Taken in every inch of you.
Then Grace found you and gave you a new home.
You have a sense of support to them
When people came, and went
You stayed
Were always there
I say thank you for them.
Then we met and once again a model
But with a mountain of respect and honour.
Your life and death has mattered,
To your family and friends of life.
To Grace in your death.
Gregory, you sweet and thoughtful boy
Rest in Peace my friend.
...
Gregory II
A few marks
A fair few bruises and scars
Marks showing of a fulfilled life
A gentle soul.
An air of mischief
I see in you.
A little messy.
But that is alright
You fit right in here in art school
In life too.
Your horns show a journey
of your life
like rings of a tree
every wiggly line
every scratch
tell a chapter of your life.
Their size: what a long life you have had.
Their robustness: you had some spunk and strength.
Flowing lines like the rippling of waves.
Speak of your patience and calm nature.
Thoughtful soul
Kindness towards those you love.
Oisin
You came to me in a cardboard box
In many pieces
I put you together
And you put me together too
In a time when I was broken
We helped each other grieve.
You - for your life
Me - for my grandfather’s.
The line which connects your skull together,
Protects your gentle mind,
Connects me to you.
Similar to a heartbeat - showing you once lived.
Unique like a fingerprint.
So were you.
So are you.
You had a life.
You had significance.
Now you are significant to me.
I named you Oisin
because you remind me of the fawn in a myth.
I have tried to give you
the respect and love,
you deserved.
I am sorry you died so young.
Probably,
by a careless driver.
I am glad that you weren’t hunted –
shot dead by arrogant men,
who kill for sport.
One thing that
I am glad that you didn’t ever experience.
I am sure that you loved running in the wilderness
Brushing up against leaves and branches while you pranced
Eating all those brambles when October came.
I am sorry I hurt you.
I will fix you with gold
like in the Kintsugi ritual
Because you deserve that.
Onyx.
You little beautiful sweet boy
You never saw or felt the warm golden sun.
You only saw the pitch-black darkness of your mother’s womb
Only felt your mother’s embrace
And I hope her love,
Because she loved you more than anything.
You were unnamed because you were not born.
You didn’t get a chance to breathe the beautifully fresh oxygen-filled air into your lungs.
No chance to see the world or your mother’s face.
So, when you came to me,
I named you Onyx.
To symbolise your small precious existence.
From Beyond The Grave: Onyx
It is dark in here
An empty void.
But I don’t feel alone.
I can hear beyond this space
I can hear
My mother’s voice
The breeze rustling the leaves and branches of the trees
Gentle footsteps
The down pour of rain.
I tumble as she moves
I somersault in this void
I stretch and find that I can feel something squishy
I try again and again
Now kicking
Finding out where my limits are
See how far I can go.
I can feel myself grow
I am getting bigger each day
I have found that there are new parts of me now.
I am in my mother’s womb.
Then it all went even darker,
And silent.
Empty I now feel.
Death’s hand has grasped me,
Now has a hold of me.
That is it.
My life ended,
Before it even begun.
Thanos
Thanos
A name of a god.
The god of death.
Named because of your large powerful presence.
The strength you hold
Once used to
Support and defend
Those whom you love.
...
From Beyond The Grave I
A walk is a journey of steps.
One hoof in front of the other,
Right, left, right, left.
I can hear my hooves hit the ground.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Patter. Patter. Patter.
Depending on where I walk.
A walk is a journey of experiences you witness:
A dying twig of a tree
becoming beautiful by the crystallisation of frost
twinkling in the sun.
The sun hitting you,
I feel a burst of heat in a cold winter day.
I am embraced
by one big hug by all the trees in the wood.
The comfort I feel from it.
A connection,
I feel with the earth.
The times I am feel sorrowful
Mother nature understands
Rain starts
She cries with me.
I run free
In the open fields
I bound
Elegant
Leaping.
The breeze blows
Through every hair of my fur
Oh, what a glorious feeling
When running
the wind
picking up more of those
individual hairs.
Life,
happens within a walk.
From Beyond The Grave II
A simple life I had.
A thoughtful life.
A peaceful life.
Gentle impact,
I had on Earth.
A guardian of nature.
As a guardian,
I observed the world.
Embracing every inch,
I see,
Every little leaf,
I notice,
Is different,
In its own beautiful way.
I observe those humans,
From a far,
Of course.
I observe the birds,
Soaring through the air.
Oh, how I wish I could do that so!
I observed the world.
I observed.
I observed.
However,
My question now is:
Did I live?
...
...
Grandfather
D.S.R
You were a man
A good man
A grandfather to me
A father to my father
A husband to his mother
You were a man
Then you became confined into that wooden box
A coffin
Which I stared at
I didn’t know that you were there
Then you suddenly were
Salt tears washed down my face
Because you now fit into a box
The man I knew wasn’t small in any way to fit in that small box.
But also because I hardly knew you.
You were my grandfather, a golfer, a business man.
That is all I really know.
I am sorry.
Then my other grandfather was at the funeral too - through the melodramatic organ music.
We then took you into the woods in Banchory
Back to nature
Which is important to me.
Your body became ashes
But you were set free.
I now see you in the trees
In every leaf
In the granite of Aberdeen buildings
The city you loved.
You are gone.
I am here.
I guess that this is
Goodbye.
...