scent of incense from a remote temple; has someone died?
Scent of Incense [Haiku]
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Tag Archives: Death
Ghost or Dream? [Free Verse]
I glimpsed your ghost,
but for a moment
in the middle of the night
just as I opened my eyes.
You stood stock still --
right there at the foot of my bed.
I couldn't make out your expression
in the short time before you faded.
In the morning, I learned
that you died that night.
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Fields of the Dead [Free Verse]
It's a beautiful day
in the graveyard.
Blue skies.
Cool, but not cold.
The ideal temperature
to be an overdressed military man.
Do ghosts amble among the stones
on days like these?
I imagine most of these men died
on quite different kinds of days:
Rainy, cold, muddy days.
Muggy, buggy, malarial days.
The kind of day that just won't end,
but to fold into a sleepless night.
How many died,
not from spall or Minié balls,
but because they just didn't have the will
to drag themselves through another day?
from exhaustion?
from demoralization?
How many died under beautiful blue skies
on an idyllic autumn day?
I don't know whether
there're good days to die,
and even less whether
there're good days to be dead.
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Autumn Orange [Haiku]
autumn orange: to live most brightly just before the end.
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Smoky Morning, or: Smoky Mourning [Sonnet]
A smoky morning signals chilly air as those who live with walls of plastic sheet gather anything matches set aflare, and huddle where skin reddens from the heat. The toxic kindling of modernity can burn so quickly, swirling into ash. The search for fine fuel builds fraternity as all sift through the varied kinds of trash. They seek a slow and steady type of fire, but poison and explosive burn aren't linked. This toxic gas hangs low, where they inspire, a deadly vapor which makes this clan extinct. Smoldering pit, skirted by serene stiffs -- of what killed them, there remains no whiff.
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Epicurean Epitaph [Free Verse]
Born from the Black, He wormed through the World. He dove into Death, Vanishing back into the Black.
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Winter Days [Sonnet]
My winter days are vaguely seen from here, but I cannot yet see the very end: only the plain that is the sum of fears, a sum that only living on transcends. The peek I take looks like my days back then. It's not so Batman noir as I've been told. My focus shifts to now; I find my Zen. The act of living life is growing bold. In dreams, that dreadful hour calls to me, and I feign sleep and turn my back on Death. If he can't be seen, maybe he can't lead, and I can soldier on with my next breath. My focus shifts to now; I find my Zen. It's good to gasp every now -n- again.
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Tomb of the Diver [Lyric Poem]
Plunging into darkness, there is no other way. In the tomb-like silence, the mind begins to stray. To roam, to roam, to roam, or does it simply sink; with neither light nor eyes, one might just be hoodwinked.
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A Place of Death [Rubāʿī]
I walk past row on row of granite stones. The grass is usually freshly mown, but lately vegetation doesn't seem to grow, and so, I kneel where seeds have been sown.
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Schrödinger’s Isle [Blank Verse Sonnet]
The island's rocky columns rise upward. Its gray and green was tiny, but now looms. A giant jutting rock that stands on high, and shades the white sand beach and coral sea. This island will be home from now 'til doom. One's gratitude for fists of sand first swells, but it will crash in time with tedium. Could a sea death beat solitary life? One lives and dies by coconut water -- day after day - week after week, and dreams of company and comfort food, while knowing this is hell and paradise. What prison is this island - place unknown - that like Schrödinger's box shrouds life & death?
Tiger Riding for Beginners 