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London Town: Highgate Cemetery

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Published: 8th May 2021

Images by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay (phone box) and gR

This Poem was placed 1st in the "ALL YOURS May 9" Poetry Contest sponsored by Brian Strand (Judged 7th June 2021)

This is the 2nd of five short poems I have written under the umbrella title of 'London Town'

Highgate Cemetery is situated in North London and is notable for the famous people buried there.

a beautiful silence spirals from turrets that twist like the pathways through the bracken and grass. the stars that still shine here are mapped out as numbers in a gothic hereafter for the tourists who pass.

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John Watt

Date: 6/27/2022 11:27:00 PM

There appears to be a subtle wink to the incongruity of this sacred and sober resting place of the dead teeming with tourists looking up celebrity names on their tour maps. I love "Gothic hereafter" and your understated irony. Cheers ~ John

Gary Radice
Date: 6/28/2022 5:52:00 AM

There is a subtle wink John and yet there is no getting away from the fact that Ann and I - tourists both - were there with our paid for maps searching out the graves of the famous along with everybody else. It did play with our minds. Thanks once again for your very perceptive comments. Cheers - Gary

Kai Michael Neumann

Date: 6/6/2021 7:25:00 AM

Nice one. Greetings from Karl Marx ...

Gary Radice
Date: 6/6/2021 7:54:00 AM

:) His 'new' grave was getting quite a bit of attention on the day we were there and there's no walking past it without noticing it either. His original grave, not far away in the cemetery on the other hand, was overgrown without a single selfie stick in sight. Cheers - Gary

David Holmes

Date: 5/21/2021 12:06:00 PM

Gary, enjoyed Brick Lane so much wanted to read Highgate Cemetery - I have gone to several cemetery's in and around and outside of London - you have captured their quiet beauty - David

Gary Radice
Date: 5/21/2021 12:44:00 PM

David, I'm glad you are enjoying the poems. I guess it's a bit strange for Northerners like me to show their love of London but I liken it to one big Theme Park with its own transportation system. Places out of the tourist way appeal to Ann and I and Highgate Cemetry was a fascinating, place. On the day we went we heard kids laughing and playing in a school playground from somewhere. Their exuberance juxtaposed with the sereen, tranquil cemetery. I tried bringing it into the poem but settled with what I had.

L Milton Hankins

Date: 5/16/2021 9:25:00 AM

Exceptional writing, Gary. I always enjoy reading your work. Glad to see you are venturing into wider readership through publication.

Gary Radice
Date: 5/16/2021 9:46:00 AM

Thanks Milton. I appreciate your valued comments as always. I just thought I'd try having a go at a little project by grouping a few poems under a common title (and then adding a fancy graphic) using my Poetry Soup space - nothing more. It's not for wider publication..although I'd like to see PS provide the opportunity for Soupers to create a few mini e- anthologies of their own from their poems. Cheers - Gary (NB: The 'fancy graphic' of a book cover I referred to here in the comments has since been replaced)

David Kavanagh

Date: 5/11/2021 9:30:00 AM

Fine writing Gary, the cemetery tours are so popular these days, to be honest I prefer looking around on my own after visiting loved ones graves, nothing morbid just fascinated with the architecture, and indeed found my own namesake on a headstone one day, almost met myself, cheers David

Gary Radice
Date: 5/11/2021 10:13:00 AM

Hi David. Thanks for the comments. We didn't take the tour and settled for a lovely walk by ourselves - admittedly complete with map and numbers. We prefer that too to the group tours. There were another 2 verses to this poem but I went once again for the 'more is less' thing. Cheers - Gary

Terry Flood

Date: 5/10/2021 11:56:00 AM

How wacky is the world. I grew up in Wood Green, did a milk round for some years in Highgate and found myself outside Highgate Cemetery on a few occasions... but never once set foot inside it. Your depiction leaves me wishing I wasn’t 100 miles away. Terry

Gary Radice
Date: 5/10/2021 12:31:00 PM

We try to get to The Big Smoke (or is that The Big Vape now?) once a year for a few days; pre-Covid anyway. We loved our walk through the east cemetry a couple of years back. You have to book a tour for the west cemetry. Lovely morning walk. All the famous names from history are there and then round the corner there's the grave of Jeremy Beadle too :) Thanks for the comments. I'll take some time to catch up on some PS reading over the next few days. Cheers - Gary

John Lawless

Date: 5/8/2021 3:43:00 AM

nicely written Gary, paints a picture and aura of the cemetery

Gary Radice
Date: 5/8/2021 3:50:00 AM

Thanks John. Highgate is the burial place of many famous names from history. Rowland Hill – originator of the modern postal service, Michael Faraday – electrical engineer, William Friese-Greene – inventor of cinematography, Henry Moore – painter and Karl Heinrich Marx are just a few of the names buried there (Marx and his wife's remains were exhumed from the original 1881 grave and reinterred in the more prominent place it is today in 1954) Cheers - Gary

Caren Krutsinger

Date: 5/8/2021 1:28:00 AM

“A gothic hereafter”-I really like this

Gary Radice
Date: 5/8/2021 1:32:00 AM

Thank you Caren. It sums up Highgate Cemetry for me. It's a beautifully serene place and I recommend it to anyone who has a spare morning or afternoon while in London. Cheers - Gary