“Here I’d like for people to write a somewhat serious poem, ideally a haiku or tanka, from the point of view of someone who is going to die and knows it. Haiku in English has been often been taught as a nature poem of three lines alternating as five syllables, seven syllables, and five syllables. Not only is that not really the case (haiku in Japan are often written in one vertical line), but it has done such a disservice to the form of haiku that poets who work in the form are often overlooked. And since everyone thinks they know what haiku are, there are thousands upon thousands of awful poems that simply miss the boat.”
Cameron Mount (@cameronmount)
You have been told. Write your death poem. If you need more guidance Cameron has written a lovely poetry game for death poems to help us learn how to do it well. There is also a why ‘no 5-7-5’ post referred to in the game that will give further guidance.
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Add your response
There are 9 written responses to this assignment.
Frozen land of old,
Place that only knows of ice,
Where time is frozen,
Whose cold secrets I have learned,
Whose secrets are frozen ice
Feel the cold breeze
rushing down my spine
Now I close my eyes
Oh, it’s you again
Come close, even though it hurts.
Soon I’ll feel nothing.
I can’t feel the pain
But still vomit and tremble
In numbness
I can see the end,
Everyone feels this torture,
Is this a sick joke?
Ride flying saucers,
is how I want to live on.
Roll down the window,
my last breath in before dawn.
Everything will be OKAY.
Under desert stars
A small owl
Lifts the white feather out
Of the dying fire.
Little yellow Anas platyrhynchos
Solis orthus swimming
with Esox lucius
(duck, sunrise, pike)
no lights, shining;
no stars, falling;
no moon, floating;
no birds, singing:
i go out with only wonder,
leaving little more than words
behind that i once composed
when i was still alive,
writing as if death were always
on the horizon,
as it is.
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