The subject of death for some weird reason has never been far from my thoughts.
Yes I mean I do thinking about my death, when I'll die, where I'll die, if I'll die...
As an author, I've become somewhat enamored by the cold eternal slumber. I've found a way to look at it poetically and in the same state actively avoid it 😂
Yet I've always thought about what would happen after my death, what would I be remembered for?
As I'm clocking a new age, it's also a countdown, another year rubbed off and my brain screaming at me to answer that undying question.
What Would Be On Your Gravestone?
Now surely an epitaph isn't all a late person is known for.
To his family and friends he'll be known for much more, and for those who he had impacted their lives directly, well they could sing songs of praise, adoration or hatred that could fill a thousand gravestones.
Yet to a stranger who just wanders and stumbles onto my grave on a warm afternoon would have his first impression of me from what is written on there would he not?
The #inleo #aprilinleo monthly prompts for today really had me thinking of this, thinking so much that I went searching and boy oh boy..
The competition for the most creative epitaphs is as fierce as it is beautiful.
Even Amidst Fierce Flames The Golden Lotus Can Be Planted. ~ Sylvia Plath
Now this is one lady with a but-load of creativity ✨
I mean look at that Epitaph 🔥
Motivation is at it's peak!!
Sylvia Plath was a poet and novelist who died in the early 1960's
I haven't read any of her works but with this epitaph I sure am intrigued.
Apparently it's her husband who chose it for her, coining it from a quote from the Ming dynasty era poet Wu Cheng'en.
Despite it not being original, it is a hell of an epitaph and it was a great choice.
Y'all should always marry right ; )
And Alien Tears will Fill for Him Pity's Long Broken Urn, For his Mourners Will be Outcast Men and Outcasts Allways Mourn. ~ Oscar Wilde
Now this author... I do know.
I remember reading his book The Happy Prince when I was 13 years old.
Back then he sounded like Shakespeare.
Well now I can tell he has infinitely more wit and character 😂
Regardless the epitaph on his grave comes from one of his poems. "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" and it's simply splendid.
Nothing like Shakespearean English to give a sentence class >>>
Here Lies Whose Name Was Writ in Water ~ John Keats
Now this.... this I like!!!!!
If I were to choose an epitaph, it would definitely be something like this. Something fleeting yet timeless, something that doesn't make sense yet makes you want to ponder on and on...
John Keats was a famous Romantic Era English poet and one with a great common fear with almost all artists, writers, authors and inventors.
The fear that their name would be forgotten after their death.
I share that fear too, although it's not my greatest it is a considerable one.
I don't know where his spirit may be but if it's any consolation, I remember this name, I remember him if not for anything, I'll remember him for a glorious epitaph.
Looking through the epitaph of these famous dead authors, posts and novelists, the pressure is on for me to have something written on stone that indeed would weather the times.
I wonder if I'll have something timeless, if it'll be something sweet, or in my old senile age I'll just request for something out of curiosity.
Maybe all in all I'll just forget about the epitaph on my stone as a whole.
Besides, the one who has the gravestone would never be able to admire it😂🥀
- Gifs Gotten from Tenor
My Instagram page.