The Graveyard On Church Street

My poem, The Graveyard on Church Street, was published October 30, 2023 by Poetry Catalog. As mentioned on my ‘Published Works’ page, this is an extremely emotional and personal poem for me. The Graveyard on Church Street is a real place, located in St. George’s, Telford, England, where I lived for a brief time in the late 90s.

St. George’s Parish Church on Church Street was just around the corner from where I lived at the time. It was a very difficult time in my life for a variety of reasons, but, in the middle of the night, when things would get especially bad at home, I would leave and walk to the church. Or, more specifically, the graveyard.

Now, I am an atheist. I don't go to church unless it’s for a wedding or a funeral. But I do love cemeteries. Very, very old cemeteries, to be exact. And England is full of very, very old cemeteries. I also have an intense love of English and Scottish history. And this cemetery, right around the corner from my flat, was OLD. The oldest stone I could read was from the 1700s, I think. I took some pencil rubbings of some of the stones, but those got left behind when I came back to the States.

Anyway, whenever home was no longer home, I would leave and walk to the church. This was in the early months of the year, January, February, March, and it was COLD. And it was the middle of the night, usually 11pm or later. I would walk there and the wrought iron side gate would always be open, as if it were expecting me. I would spend hours walking amongst the graves and crying.

In the end, I came back to the States in mid-March and I still think I left a part of myself in that old, cold, lonely graveyard.

(Photo take via Google Earth of the actual graveyard on Church Street, St. George’s, Telford, England.)