Dreams Wander On

2012-02-20T21:18:00.000-08:00

381
om
could be part of
someone's last poem

2012-02-20T21:13:00.000-08:00

380
when I die
I don't want
any leftovers

2012-02-15T19:13:00.001-08:00

379
with each passing day
forever no longer seems
so far off

2012-02-15T18:53:00.001-08:00

378
numbered. . .
every grain of sand
and all my exhales

2012-02-12T14:25:00.001-08:00

377
new shoes
the kind you could find
in a coffin

2012-01-29T14:44:00.001-08:00

376
sun and moon
for us too
no beginning, no end

2012-01-29T13:20:00.000-08:00

375
that knowing silence
between the winter fly
and me

2012-01-29T13:18:00.000-08:00

374
yes, we die
but the fragrance
doesn't

2012-01-01T10:15:00.000-08:00

373
New Year's Day
oh, to be carried again. . .
by casket

Happy New Year (2012) to one and all!

Best wishes,

Robert

2011-12-23T09:03:00.000-08:00

372
another friend of a friend
diagnosed with cancer
is the sky big enough
to hold all these souls
in flight

2011-12-22T20:46:00.001-08:00

371
home sick
more practice
dying

*********

home sick
another dress
rehearsal

2011-12-22T20:36:00.001-08:00

370
eyes closed
departing
New Year's Eve

2011-12-22T20:35:00.001-08:00

369
on second thought
I'd rather die the way I lived
a little crooked

2011-12-22T20:35:00.000-08:00

369
on second thought
I'd rather die the way I lived
a little crooked

2011-12-18T10:19:00.000-08:00

368
sucking a lollipop
you still don't get it
we're all going to die

2011-12-06T08:18:00.000-08:00

367
my future
in the eye
of the potato

2011-11-20T14:22:00.001-08:00

366
octopus
I already know
the way home

2011-11-20T14:17:00.001-08:00

365
guess what
I'm gearing up to go
gentle into the night

~ not after Dylan Thomas

2011-11-20T14:15:00.000-08:00

364
were I not bald
I too would shake my white locks
at the runaway sun

~ after Walt Whitman

2011-11-18T22:52:00.000-08:00

363
sittingtodie

2011-11-18T22:51:00.000-08:00

362
yes (i) (k)now death

2011-11-17T18:43:00.000-08:00

361
Haiku poet Andrea Grillo sent two death awareness haiku, which I would like to share with readers. The first may have originally appeared in Hummingbird, though publication credit is not currently available. The second poem is unpublished.

please
scatter my ashes
in a summer garden
as daylight ebbs
and colors ripen

********

when
does summer really end?
my garden
deepens with each dusk
gold and russet highlights

2011-11-16T09:36:00.000-08:00

360
Haiku poet Donna Fleischer sent the following death awareness poem that first appeared in South by Southeast, 18:1, 2010:

a stone
between my dead
& fading footsteps

Thank you, Donna, for sharing your poem. I find myself glancing back at my own footsteps, wondering which have died and which are fading. I want to know something more about this stone. . . where did it come from and what is its texture, composition? Has it been set into place between these footsteps?

2011-11-13T09:57:00.000-08:00

359
hesitating
the grim reaper at the door
All Souls' Day

2011-11-13T09:51:00.000-08:00

358
under
that
stone
my
future

2011-11-13T09:44:00.000-08:00

358
my future
under that
stone

2011-11-13T09:41:00.000-08:00

357
death brooking
no questions
no answers

2011-11-13T09:39:00.001-08:00

356
hooting owl departure time

2011-11-13T09:38:00.001-08:00

355
picture window
you won't find me
on either side

2011-11-13T09:36:00.001-08:00

354
thunder I'm gone

2011-11-13T09:32:00.000-08:00

353
cloudless sky
trying to imagine a world
w/o her. . . or me

2011-11-11T19:20:00.000-08:00

352
rainy day bookshop--
someday somebody will be
browsing through my books

2011-11-01T22:09:00.000-07:00

351
after the bone shop
I thank God I won't
last forever

2011-11-01T20:31:00.001-07:00

350
March funeral
comes and goes
so do we

2011-10-30T13:21:00.001-07:00

349
57 years ago
death put a bounty
on my head

2011-10-30T13:13:00.000-07:00

348
guess what
obladi oblada
life goes on

2011-10-30T11:32:00.000-07:00

347
nothing running
close behind
my last breath

2011-10-30T11:30:00.000-07:00

346
my shadow still
a little ahead of
my last breath

2011-10-30T11:29:00.000-07:00

345
trying patiently
to pencil in
my death day

2011-10-16T13:27:00.000-07:00

344
back of the house
that's where death
rooms for now

2011-10-16T13:24:00.000-07:00

343
the cookie crumbles
& so does
everything else

2011-10-16T13:23:00.001-07:00

342
living will
it too depends on
my breath

2011-10-16T13:20:00.001-07:00

341
death
I've got you
under my skin

2011-10-16T13:14:00.000-07:00

340
piece of cake
that's what mom tells me
about dying

2011-10-16T13:11:00.000-07:00

339
black is black
what else is there
to know about death

2011-10-16T13:07:00.001-07:00

338
one breath poem
that's all I got
left in me

2011-10-16T12:09:00.001-07:00

337
death. . .
please don't leave me
hanging

2011-10-16T11:40:00.000-07:00

336
this death--
another leaf from
nature's thriller

2011-10-16T11:37:00.001-07:00

335
falling leaves
I want to know
who teaches them

**********

falling leaves
take me to
your mentor

2011-10-16T11:07:00.000-07:00

334
thinking of death
I turn on
the white noise machine

2011-09-26T08:35:00.001-07:00

333
through that portal
death and
whatever else

2011-09-26T08:33:00.000-07:00

332
sun speckled dust
on the dresser, along the shelf
I am made of dust

2011-09-21T22:25:00.000-07:00

331
indigo night
I follow the cricket's song
down down down

2011-09-21T22:23:00.000-07:00

330
September night
a cricket's song
of no birth, no death

2011-09-21T19:42:00.001-07:00

329
a single raindrop
in a single puddle
evaporating

2011-09-21T19:17:00.000-07:00

329
you
have
ques
tions?

death
has

an
swers

2011-09-21T19:14:00.000-07:00

328
my lips to
the fading rose
another petal falls

2011-09-21T19:11:00.001-07:00

327
climb in the box
close the lid and
dream away

2011-09-21T19:10:00.001-07:00

326
fluttering away
my past and
the rest of me

2011-09-21T19:06:00.000-07:00

325
Indian summer day
not protesting
the dying of the light

2011-09-21T19:05:00.001-07:00

324
more grass clippings
but but I'm not ready
to be mulched

2011-07-17T11:36:00.000-07:00

323
full
moon
cash
me
out

2011-07-10T10:04:00.000-07:00

322
time was then wasn't

2011-07-10T10:01:00.000-07:00

321
death--
one thing only
surrender

death
if you've learned to surrender
you're good

2011-07-10T10:00:00.002-07:00

320
it brooks no resistance death

2011-07-10T10:00:00.001-07:00

319
it's in the undertow death

2011-07-10T09:53:00.000-07:00

318
so many stars
that treasure you were looking for
was you

2011-07-10T09:51:00.000-07:00

317
only one way to go
disappearing into thin air

2011-07-10T09:47:00.000-07:00

316
my Original Face
before my parents were born?
the same as yours

2011-07-10T09:46:00.000-07:00

315
my death
the one and only
original act

2011-07-10T09:43:00.000-07:00

314
lightning fast
that's how quick
the chipmunk meets fate

2011-07-10T09:41:00.000-07:00

313
see that fog?
it's the color of
death

2011-07-10T09:39:00.001-07:00

312
to die. . .
it feels so. . . .
glacial

2011-07-10T09:38:00.001-07:00

311
how do I die
let me count
the ways

2011-07-10T09:34:00.000-07:00

310
I waited. . .
and waited. . .
til I expired

2011-07-10T09:33:00.001-07:00

309
today's reader
tomorrow's subject
obituary page

2011-07-03T11:47:00.000-07:00

308
those small puddles
you saw disappear
that was us

2011-07-03T11:43:00.000-07:00

307
breath by breath
being with what is
and isn't

breath by breath
being with what is
and beyond

2011-06-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

306
rare June rain
I was all ready to complain, then
realized I'm alive

2011-06-26T09:18:00.001-07:00

305
you don't have to
be dead to enjoy it
cemetery stillness

2011-06-26T09:16:00.001-07:00

304
sea shell
I too could be buried
for a billion years

2011-06-25T09:24:00.001-07:00

303
under a red sky
the last traces of woodsmoke
disappear

2011-06-22T20:32:00.001-07:00

302
death meditation
the last breath
doesn't count

2011-06-19T13:07:00.001-07:00

301
flowering weed
can't I just slip through
that crack in the concrete

2011-06-19T13:03:00.001-07:00

300
loud thunder
I hold my breath
death does the same

2011-06-19T12:58:00.000-07:00

299
today
those circling vultures
can fly me home

2011-06-19T12:54:00.000-07:00

298
no bluer sky this dying day

2011-06-19T12:53:00.001-07:00

297
one foot in the grave
one foot in
Father's Day

2011-06-19T12:49:00.000-07:00

296
imagine
casket
there's no heaven
lowered
I wonder if you can
into the ground

2011-06-19T12:44:00.000-07:00

295
I will lay me down
where the butterfly stops
Father's Day

2011-06-19T12:38:00.000-07:00

294
sorting through
the tin of rusted nails
last will & testament

2011-05-15T12:23:00.000-07:00

293
howling winds
never question a dying man
whispers the dying man

2011-05-15T12:19:00.000-07:00

292
in my dream
I have two choices
live or die

2011-05-15T12:11:00.000-07:00

291
dried out lily
the little I know
about death

2011-05-01T22:08:00.000-07:00

290
I have been reading The Inevitable, a collection of essays by writers who confront death; it is edited by David Shields and Bradford Morrow. I wish to share a few quotes from the book, which grabbed my attention.

In death, I want to be air moving through air--nothing through nothing--forever changing and unchanged.

Everything we say about death is actually about life.

-- Kyoki Mori, "Between the Forest and the Well: Notes on Death," p. 45

Of death, mortals are absolutely ignorant. The dead, fortunately, are beyond caring.

-- Lynne Tillman, "The Final Plot," p. 280

How each morning, as you rise from your bed, the belief hums through your head that you are going to die, going to die,
going to die, yes, surely, no doubt about it, but not today--an observation that will remain correct every morning of your life, except one, because--
Because--
To hope, E. M. Cioran once wrote, is to contradict the future.

-- Lance Olsen, "Lessness," p. 294

2011-04-26T22:32:00.000-07:00

289
from every angle
in this blue sky
i'm nowhere to be found

2011-04-24T11:21:00.000-07:00

288
Easter Sunday
laid out around me
365 death poems

2011-04-18T17:01:00.000-07:00

287
4:59
the most orderly time at work
for the heart to give out

2011-04-17T10:58:00.001-07:00

286
looming
up ahead
the end

2011-04-17T10:52:00.001-07:00

285
that's one
I won't see
death certificate