One spring day

Route 32 Cemetery in Petersham, MA:

Died by accident, May 16, 1975

The fading bloom

From First Church Cemetery, Templeton, MA:

Your rosy cheeks in a few weeks,
May be as pale as I;
My early fate doth intimate
That blooming youth must die.

To cull undying flowers

From Three Rivers Cemetery, Three Rivers, MA:

He crossed the shining river,
The silver sparkling tide,
To cull undying flowers
That bloom the other side.

Scalped by Indians

From a cemetery in Northfield, MA:

In memory of Nathaniel Dickinson
who was killed + scalped by indians
at Pochague Hill Apr. 15, 1747
His body was buried in an unknown grave near this spot.

Ax of God

From Gill Cemetery, Gill, MA:

Like crowded forest trees we stand
And some are mark'd to fall
The ax will smite at God's command
And soon shall smite us all.

We shall sit in silence.

From Riverside Cemetery, Sunderland, MA:

I shall come back again,
returning amid summer bloom,
and take you, hand in hand,
through our familiar hills,
where the mountain laurel affords
quiescent shade to the short grass;
and we shall watch from the topmost hill,
the river flowing south to the sea.
There we shall sit in silence
through the odd rush
of the warm afternoon,
the sun's unnoticed disappearance,
the lingering, reflected twilight
caught in the high purple hills
from the light of the recent sun,
the swallows' vanishing flight.

Without a moment's warning

From Depot Road Cemetery, Leverett. MA:

In memory of the Rev. Henry Williams A.M.
who was the first ordained minister
of the Church of Christ in Leverett.
He was an ardent preacher,
eminent in prayer.
A faithful minister,
and of truly evangelical sentiments.
Borne down with infirmity and pain,
which he long endured with Christian
patience and submission, he expired
suddenly in his chair, without a
moment's warning, Nov. 27, 1811
Aged 66
"Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord, when he
cometh, shall find so doing."

Pale, concluding winter

From First Church Cemetery, Templeton, MA:

Behold fond man!
See here thy pictured life! Pass some few years;
Thy flowering spring thy summers ardent strength,
Thy sober autumn fading into age,
And pale concluding winter comes at last,
And shuts the scene.

The scythe of death, now near it sweeps!

From New Salem Cemetery, New Salem, MA:

Deeply lamented, as he had lived much respected.
Among the dead, fond memory weeps
O'er graves of lov'd associates gone:
The scythe of death, now near it sweeps!
Twill be our turn to fall anon.

In the shade of elm trees

From Riverside Cemetery, Sunderland, MA:

She rests under the shade
of elm trees
And the winter snows
that she loved.

[While at this cemetery this morning I met Julie, the niece of Batman/AdamWest(!). Julie, it was nice talking with you! Happy geocaching!]