Lexington Lives

Lexington Lives merges history with poetry voices sharing their lives and their deaths. Among the archives shelves there are stories waiting to be understood. History books and brief obituaries in 1800s newspapers leave readers inquiring: What is the full story? Who were these people? What hardships did they face? These poems give voice to people throughout Kentucky's history be it the child who died in a fire the asylum suicide victims of a train wreck or the murdered circus bear trainer. Some voices are a merging of lives while others arrive from historical figures such as suffragist Laura Clay and cholera epidemic gravedigger William King Solomon. Photographs of cemetery statues and headstones illustrate the poems to complement them and to give a sense of permanence to the lives shared. All photographs are by Laura Anne Heller and were taken in Lexington Cemetery and Calvary Cemetery. Laura Anne Heller works as an archivist and writes poetry when history and culture inspires a story.