a dead tree
stands above the living;
it didn’t pace itself.
Icarus Tree [Senryū]
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Category Archives: Death
PROMPT: Mars
Daily writing prompt
Do you think humans will ever colonize Mars? What would life there actually look like?
Probably, and life will probably be short and toilsome for quite a while. Short because there’ll be loads of unintended consequence and we will probably learn there are many more aspects of Earth that are consequential to our wellbeing than we ever understood. Toilsome because, as European explorers in Africa thought that everything was trying to kill them, Mars colonists will find that there is not one thing there that wants them alive. Every task involves pushing a boulder uphill.
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Nature DGAF [Haiku]
wildflowers grow
around an unattended grave;
pooped on by birds.
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PROMPT: Named
Daily writing prompt
If you could have something named after you, what would it be?
A random rock in the riverbed.
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Bright Autumn [Free Verse]
I want a bright Autumn --
brisk & clear.
I want a colorful Fall,
not one in which cold gray
blanches all brilliant shades.
I want a windy Autumn:
full of movement that
swirls & lifts anything
that's light enough.
I want an Autumn that
draws people outside,
not one that pens them.
I don't mind a bite of cold
as long as I can see white
clouds float through blue skies.
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Deceased [Free Verse]
clouds drift over
the cemetery -
unseen by all those
upturned eyes.
What a glorious day
to be deceased!
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PROMPT: 100-year-old
Dear Dust,
Congratulations. You will now have made it to more countries than I did in life. I’m jealous.
Yours truly,
You (but Hydrated & Animated)
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PROMPT: Ideal Day
I wake up. I don’t die. I go to sleep.
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Ivy & Stone [Free Verse]
There's something relentless
in an old stone wall...
But, also, cold and dead.
One knows it will not stand forever --
that it will go the way of
ruins, rubble, stones, and dust --
but, still, it can outstand any man.
Ivy climbs to camouflage the stone's
cruel deathlessness,
But then the ivy stands on the wall
year after year after year...
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PROMPT: Long Life
Daily writing prompt
What are your thoughts on the concept of living a very long life?
Living a long life while physically and mentally capable = great. Living a long life when you need advanced technology to achieve it and you’re just lying around like a slug without the ability hold a simple conversation = the worst circle of hell I can fathom.
One of the few books I’d recommend for everyone is Atul Gawande’s “Being Mortal” which shows that our great pride in increasing human life expectancy is not all it’s cracked up to be because the average quality of life at death has dropped in the process. Essentially, people are completing the marathon because we are dragging quasi-corpses over the finish line rather than allowing them to fail gracefully.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 