Navigating through a Graveyard

All the worlds a stage

And all the dead were merely players

Tales of tragic love and triumphant conquests

Melpomene and Thalia gleamed in pride

Clinking chalices drinking His blood

Dionysus cried

.

Janus waited at the beginning

Or was it just the end

Sisyphus reaped what he sowed

A classic tale or a cycle of eternity

Laborious and futile

Just like the present

.

A labyrinth of journeys

Millions travel everyday

Red thread of fate

They follow to their grave

Man’s search for purpose

A handful of words

.

Father

Son

Wife

Child

Loving Mother

.

Artist

Teacher

Refugee

Leader

Meaning of their lives

.

They clasped their hands

Adieu and Welcome

Friends and family

Brothers and Sisters

Hark! The Phoenix cried

And soared the skies above

The piece of writing above is inspired by my sites of investigation, The Highgate Cemetery and the Brompton Cemetery. It deals with a range of different elements that I discovered in both the graveyards and the text is also synonymous to life, death and the journey in between. The poem is also a response the final piece I created for the Navigators project.

This piece was used to explore the universal spiritual journey experienced by man as he reaches the inevitable destination of death. The project raised fundamental questions about man’s search for purpose during this universal journey. Multiple dimensions of this project explored Victor Frankl’s timeless thesis, “The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her life.”[1]

My first experience of the universal journey experienced by man, came in the form of Mark Wallinger’s ‘Labyrinths’.[2] Historically, a labyrinth is also a metaphor for the spiritual journey to the center of your deepest self and back out into the world with a broadened understanding of who you are.[3] It has a unicursal path with the same entrance and exit which is synonymous to the meandering but purposeful journey of life and death. Wallinger’s labyrinth raised fundamental questions about purpose. The labyrinth represents the different journeys that man goes through to find purpose in his life to arrive at the same destination.

While creating frottages in my investigative site, I couldn’t help but notice the words on the gravestones. These words encapsulate how the subject has spent his life defining himself and his purpose. They are the physical embodiment of impact left behind on the metaphysical world. They paint a perception in the readers mind based on the roles used to define him; father, son, philosopher, author, artist, just like characters in a play like Shakespeare mentioned. Interestingly, both Shakespeare and the labyrinth elude to common ideas on universal exits and entrances and the journey in between.[4]

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[1] Viktor E Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (United States: Beacon Press, 1959).

[2] ‘Art on The Underground’, Transport for London (13 February 2013) art.tfl.gov.uk/labyrinth/about/ [Accessed 27October 2019].

[3] ‘The Labyrinth’, Lessons for Living (4 April 2013) lessons4living.com/labyrinth.htm [Accessed 27October 2019].

[4] William Shakespeare, As You Like It (London: S. Gosnell, 1810).