Snow Covered Memorial Stones

Snow covered memorial stones 

Snow covered stones with those

we love below

Names covered - “How will they know

It is us that lie?” 

Far beneath the fields of white 

As the snow is brushed gently away

The names chiseled deep 

In the granite face speak 

Years of birth, and passing 

The dash, the life lived

The years were precious and lived

as meant to be 

But I wanted to think if I had another day, 

What would it be? 

“Heading toward this day my whole life”

Just think if Julia or Pete had not lived? Near 70 they aged

Saw four lives pass on while living- Dorothy, John, George and Wash

My dad wouldn’t have been, 

Nor me, nor mine, or theirs

Such a vast loss I could not conceive 

The Sun is shining on this bitter, cold,

Wintry day 

Blanketed gravestones still, unnoticed 

The shadows know and hear below

Wipe away the snow and see- the fond and cherished family that made me

Snow Covered Memorial Stones, Glimpse poetry by Joe Holuta 

About this poem: Snow Covered Memorial Stones is a poem about a thought I had while walking a road I’ve walked many times but today I paused when I saw snow covered memorial gravestones of my relatives.

The sun was shining and shadows cast by the stones, but the names were covered with snow. I dusted off the flurry of snow and saw their names and the years of their lives and had fond memories of how precious they were -though I did not know them well or at all. The impact of our lives are much more than the length and years we live. The substance, the love, integrity, and values we live by - live on. - Joe Holuta