Cubist Memory

One of my wife's colleagues lost her husband a few years ago, he was very young and had only recently married when he passed away.  He was an architectural technologist, a qualification I too hold, and his wife, an artist.

My wife had said a number of times that she would need to take me  to the cemetery to see the headstone, if was designed by his wife, very simple, very poignant, very powerful and very beautiful.  I have to admit I struggle with modern cemetery "decor" I think fairy lights, toys, fencing, and the like distract from the reverence that I personally think consecrated ground deserves to be held in.  I understand people grieve differently but nonetheless this is a cemetery not an ornamental garden.

When I saw this stone I was struck by the strength that it portrayed, it was clearly visible among the "decor" and the simple lines held my gaze, the inscription too, simple but says all it needs to say to let the observer know the person there and it reminded me of one of my favourite lines

"Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."