Life at Willow Manor

Today was a perfectly perfect autumn day in Central Ohio! WT and
I took a little fall drive to absorb some of the wonderful colors. Here
are a few photos I took at the Oak Grove Cemetery and Arboretum.
In 1850 Oak Grove Cemetery purchased the Kilbourne farm, about
80 acres, one mile south of Delaware, OH. Cemeteries, for me, always
conjure thoughts of significance and the brevity of life. I've included
a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, in which she also conveys my
feelings on the subject.

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Dirge Without Music

Edna St. Vincent Millay

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the

hard ground.

So, it is and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind.

Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned

with lilies and with laurel they go, but I am not resigned.

Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.

Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.

A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,

A formula, a phrase remains, ---but the best is lost.

The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter,

the love,---

They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses elegant and

curled

Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not

approve.

More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in

the world.

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave

Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;

Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.

I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.