Death Poems
Remember Me
by Margaret Mead
Remember Me:
To the living, I am gone.
To the sorrowful, I will never return.
To the angry, I was cheated,
But to the happy, I am at peace,
And to the faithful, I have never left.
I cannot be seen, but I can be heard.
So as you stand upon a shore, gazing at a beautiful sea - remember me.
As you look in awe at a mighty forest and its grand majesty - remember me.
As you look upon a flower and admire its simplicity - remember me.
......
The Wild Iris
by Louise Gluck
At the end of my suffering
there was a door.
Hear me out: that which you call death
I remember.
Overhead, noises, branches of the pine shifting.
Then nothing. The weak sun
flickered over the dry surface.
......
Lament
by Dylan Thomas
When I was a windy boy and a bit
And the black spit of the chapel fold,
(Sighed the old ram rod, dying of women),
I tiptoed shy in the gooseberry wood,
The rude owl cried like a tell-tale tit,
I skipped in a blush as the big girls rolled
Nine-pin down on donkey's common,
And on seesaw sunday nights I wooed
Whoever I would with my wicked eyes,
The whole of the moon I could love and leave
......
The Country Of Marriage
by Wendell Berry
I.
I dream of you walking at night along the streams
of the country of my birth, warm blooms and the nightsongs
of birds opening around you as you walk.
You are holding in your body the dark seed of my sleep.
II.
This comes after silence. Was it something I said
......
The Slave Dealer
by Thomas Pringle
From ocean's wave a Wanderer came,
With visage tanned and dun:
His Mother, when he told his name,
Scarce knew her long-lost son;
So altered was his face and frame
By the ill course he had run.
There was hot fever in his blood,
And dark thoughts in his brain;
And oh! to turn his heart to good
......
Cancerous
by Xia Sava
My community grows
then it dies.
A natural occurrence
no one can put on hold.
When our time to go arrives,
no one protests
since everyone knows
......
Als de dood zich met het leven bemoeit
by Mario Odekerken
Als de dood zich langs de muren schuift,
in de schaduw sluimert, stil en geduldig,
voel je zijn adem, koud,
een fluistering die in de nek hangt.
Er hangt een stilte in de lucht,
zwaar en drukkend, alsof de wereld
even in adem stokt,
de tijd vastgeklemd, gevangen.
......
When Breath Becomes Air
by beginner poet
i lay peacefully, my eyes closed amidst chaos
i hear wails, friends mourning over a great loss
rubbing my eyes , as i wake up
i have a look at myself - and i freak up!
i find my arms covered in blood & bruises
deep wounds through which blood oozes
my neck in bandages restricting breath
i try to cry,scream,run - somehow escape death!
hearing heavy steps, i look up and what i see
is a tall , black cloaked man in front of me
......
To be One Again
by Kirsten Moreton
To Be One Again
On the ground lies a girl,
Dirt runs through her veins.
Thorns prick through her quick with a click.
......
My Mother’s Tomb
by Jeffrey Pipes Guice
Here I sit
On my mother’s tomb
It was only yesterday
I was in her womb
She was here
One minute
And then
She was gone
It is here
......
