I’m getting ready for a Living History Cemetery Tour, benefit for our local Save the Graves. I took the tour in 2019 (last year was Covid-cancelled) and wrote this mirrored-refrain poem after visiting the spot where one of my local heroes, the foot-traveling Rev. Charles Caleb Peirce, finally came to rest:
The Union Cemetery, Placerville
Among stones, a place for grave reflection
on past and now; what’s above, what’s below.
Two headstones where a barefoot preacher lies
as autumn breezes through the ages flow.
His name and dates on one; just C.C.P.
on the other. What would C.C. surmise
as autumn breezes through the ages flow? –
two headstones where a barefoot preacher lies
who had no use for money or for creed,
but spread the Word where nameless grasses grow.
Two headstones where a barefoot preacher lies
as autumn breezes through the ages flow.
~ Taylor Graham
