“Robert Zott’s surveying of graveyards to find tombstones with startlingly appropriate names on them is a fascinating and increasingly well-known obsession.” 
– The New York Times

“Think of the visual syntax of poet e. e. cummings.
Zott is an equally evolving singular voice.” 
– Laurencia Ciprus for Ink Magazine



SELECTED WORKS

“Gaunt Writer, Cutting Cocaine”
Hope Cemetery, Worcester MA (12-30-2021)
Digital Photos

“March”
Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla NY (02-20-2022)
Digital Photos

“Sparks Strike Glass Hull”
Fairview Cemetery, West Hartford CT (11-27-2021)
Digital Photos

“Hunt, Slaving Hand” (for Istvan Peter B’Racz)
St. Peter’s Cemetery, Danbury CT (11-21-2020)
Digital Photos

“Raven King, Rule”
Walnut Grove Cemetery, Meriden CT (11-22-2020)
Digital Photos

Ink Magazine
Robert Zott - Laureate of the Cemeteries
Click to Open

A POETICS of  NEIGHBORS

“Eager Tongue, Lick Loveless”
In Memoriam Cemetery, Wallingford CT (11-18-2020)
Digital Photos

The “Stone Poems” represent an evolution in my work with tombstones. The previous collection entitled “The Tombstone Photographs” (1995-2020) consisted of black and white images that formed linguistic connections between surnames often separated by large distances. This process deconstructed the cemetery by extracting individual tombstones from their respective contexts and arranging them into miniature cemeteries of my own making.

Created in a single cemetery on a single day, each of the Stone Poems consists of color images “grounded” in a poetics of neighbors—formed in free verse by the surnames of people who in death share a common geography. One might ask “What is the significance of this common geography?” and the answer is revealed by the poems, themselves—some bordering on micro fiction. While I still search for isolated surnames, I now view each cemetery as a reconstituted whole and seek the poetry within.

Less formal than The Tombstone Photographs, the Stone Poems are more about documentation than composition. They are far more spontaneous; I shoot on the fly with my phone camera and accept the scene as-is, without tidying up the foliage or waiting for optimal light. The weather has a consistent presence in the poems. Additional works composed of “Stragglers” left over from various locations are included. I invite anyone who wishes to join me in this pursuit to create your own stone poems and experience this wonderful game of names.


Robert Zott

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