Full fathom five
I entered the sea
only to talk to the dead
loving
raging
Poems on the topic: death
Poems on the topic “death” on Poets.by.
Papers
a nest of papers
convenient as one’s own pale horse
not yet dead
but open to it
an ink body to carry me
away by night
Swan song
the swan all alone
growing so sickly it dreams
of dead tunes
Burial at sea
out on the water
rain is no making of a field
but a great kindness
when I die
who will offer any advice
what will be the question
High-value assets
insipid discourse about suffering
is dangerous
all unprepared heads must be spared
those being the best for war
it will not be safe to expose
the rich to doubt
or the poor to conviction
horrible is the death grin
they escape in fight not laughs and curses
and the things of life
Autopsy
such weather we get in our country being so dead is a surprise
Artisanal death
a death made
of dirt and prison stone
made from hour to hour
till it was midnight
made drunk
made of work
like a heavy-headed ox
whole but odd
Roadkiller
running over a hare
on the way home
tell me I will be her
tomorrow
and the heart cannot help
a thin ink
no design in the griefs
which make us all
Suspended animation
waiting I am one
with the small sum of a heart
the ash of a warrant
the no one there of water
the sleep of a dead child
On the Birthday of Death
There was a flash, so bright — as if
from the world’s largest camera,
come to capture everyone in
their work clothes.
We children ran to the top field
& turned & looked.
What new kind of cloud was this?
What new kind of tree?
It stood for hours on the horizon,
brewing its own weather, we guessed,
or setting fruit. No one could imagine just
how strong the wind, how terrible the rain.
But we were farmers’ kids.
When we saw white birds
streaming away toward the west,
we knew what to think.
Finite
an infinite room is the grave
for the finest falling body
the overthrown
and irregular body
the no body to know
how to pass
Assignations
we met nightly
in that church red with need
to free our hands of death
building only to go bust
holding on
blessed as a swan in the palace
our last words washed out
with the rain
Describe a feeling — we’ll find a poem
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