Woodlawn Cemetery...Santa Monica <br />…Just beyond the Palisades <br />Where eighteen souls…lay buried <br />…….Within a plot..beneath the shade <br /> <br />…Of a gnarled…old tree growing <br />From a seedling destiny placed <br />…On hallowed grounds…at Woodlawn <br />Where eighteen souls…embrace <br /> <br />…In some sacred…convocation <br />From a cast…of many drawn <br />…Eighteen souls were favored <br />Amongst thousands dead at Woodlawn <br /> <br />Whyler, Franco, Lockwood, Diaz <br />...Some..of the chosen few <br />Of eighteen souls summoned <br />…To that spiritual...rendezvous <br /> <br />With the gnarled…old tree growing <br />...Whose roots some reason sought <br />To touch….eighteen souls at Woodlawn <br />…And those eighteen souls.....escort <br /> <br />Into millennia…......called…......forever <br />…Where God has etched…that last...Decree <br />On...its scroll....may joy......be written <br />...For eighteen souls… <br />............................Eighteen souls <br />.............................................And the quaint <br />.................................................................Old tree <br /> <br />Author's note: <br />Soon after the 1994 'Northridge earthquake' Los Angeles....my wife and I literally stumbled across this extraordinary spectacle. Indeed a striking scene...replete with poignancy all its own. Imagine a large tree...its roots surfacing dramatically, tenacles traveling some distance, then abruptly...disappearing into...18 individual grave sites! <br /> <br />Woodlawn Cemetery...1847 - 14th St....Santa Monica CA 90404<br /><br />James B. Earley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/eighteen-souls-at-woodlawn/
