Last week, I spent a few pleasurably-languid hours reading Neil Gaiman’s “The Graveyard Book.” Gaiman’s wonderful tale of a young boy – Nobody Owens – who is nurtured and protected by the ghostly denizens of a graveyard, transported me into another world, and made me contemplate about life, death and the afterlife.
I had experienced the same feelings once before. That was while reading Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death.”
We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then ’tis centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses’ heads
Were toward eternity. (Lines 13-20)
Graveyards are oases of tranquility in this chaotic world. They are places where some people finally find – in Earth’s welcoming bosom – the peace and solitude they craved for their entire lives. Is there really an afterlife? No one really can tell for sure. But it sure would be great if there were one.
Here are a few images inspired by the evocative imagery that Gaiman conjures up in his book. All the images were released under various Creative Commons Licenses by their photographers.
