#mortality poems on Hello Poetry

Carlo C Gomez Sep 2023

born of insects and grass
in deep hue -- as purple as the gin blossom
climbing for new altitudes
the wall breaks inside of me
I fall through the forest floor
and into the ocean of sky
all the places I go are in freefall
but there's a reappearing rhythm

heart is a drum
heart is a drum
and it will join the dots of
a prayer remembered
(the fierce words of a holy sonnet)
consoling me in its shadow
when the turbulent, inverted plane
could no longer hold itself together

#life #death #airplane #crash #metaphor #falling #mortality

Nickolas J McKee Aug 2023

The Last Alley Wondered…

I remember our song long ago
Far along the distant alley
We were the last long lights
Of night
The contemplation of pleasures
Leaving us ignoring us
Of flight

Never knowing the distant eternities
The falling feathers of our sky
Never long
Some asking why

And then I thought of you…
My long aching pain…
Never the same…

For this is why we die…

#life #mortality #hardship #truth #death

Alex McQuate Aug 2023

Time

Proclaim to me a trade,
For every crumb of food in the land,
Every drop of wine,
Every glimmer of gold in the realm,
And still I wouldn't trade it for a singular moment of time.

#time #prose #muse #mortality

LeV3e Jun 2023

Set Sail

Can you still feel their pain?
Or have we forgotten pleasure
Try to bleach away the stains
Blood left on your treasures

Bury the coins down deep
And lock away the guilt
While choking on the key
My inky guts spilt out

I'm sick on melancholy
Numb to what's right or wrong
The ship has sailed, behold her glory
Sirens wail, so great their song

Stories told by word of mouth
Gossip scribbled out a map
X marks my heart, 10 paces South
Tricked again, fell in the trap

The clash of steel, the smell of smoke
Aye, I gouged out his eye again
Nay, just another sad bloke
Who's plans went awry Captain

As I patched up my face, and dusted my coat
A crack in the mirror split across my soul
The two parts of myself, the survivor and the ghost
Both covered in blood from others we stole.

Our desires can feel so much larger than ourselves, so much more important than the other people around us... and when we lose sight of each other as equals, those desires will wreak havoc on our relationships as we put THINGS and GOALS and STATUS ahead of the people who care about us. Always remember where the path to your heart is, and beware of the pitfalls layed out from our traumatic pasts.

#desire #riches #sacrafice #pain #pleasure #morality #mortality

Francie Lynch Jun 2023

Gyrating Yeats

.
                                smoke
                                     of
                                 puff
                                   a
                                like
                      dissipates
                                  it
                                until
                               up
                                and
                             up
                                and
                                   up
                              and
                           up
                    going
                swirls
                    decreasing
                          ever
                                in
                                gyrates
                             and
                        spirals
                    time
   pre-determined
our

#tempusfugit #aging #life #mortality #death

Carlo C Gomez May 2023

Studies in Paralysis, Pt. 4

~
stationary now
duct tape loves
mouth and hands

inside removable interiors
heliocentric discontinuities:

the racket club
and the backstroke
the rabid club
and the hallucinogenic backchannels

swallowing too many placebos
on his balcony
facing away from the sun
blank diary entry
open on the table
'from despair to where?'

stationary in the trunk now
he says it will all
make sense soon
~

#fear #victim #trust #club #nightlife #drugs #kidnapping #mortality

Carlo C Gomez Apr 2023

Studies In Paralysis, Pt. 2

~
lost library books
and broken lunchbox thermos,
her childhood under a forgotten
leaf on a pond.
she's attracted to the sound
of the breeze through her hair,
inner-city birds recommending
she listen with her head underwater,
to experience it as a fish might.
this is inescapable.

blood roses in the snow,
her unemployed martyred
fingers in the factory.
the manufactured years go by
at a price too great to recover from.
for every flash of beauty,
there is a hint of anger; a dash of violence.
this is inescapable.

her sleep-flower recital
in a dew-swathed spring morning hospital,
some kind of faraway pink funeral for
dead trees and traffic lights.
treasure impaired clouds capture
an isolated moment in time.
perhaps several moments.
perhaps several parts of the same moment.
this is inescapable.
~

#fear #childhood #innocence #neglect #abuse #aging #health #mortality

Carlo C Gomez Dec 2022

And Then Comes Twilight

~
"The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness." — Vladimir Nabokov

Clockworks and Ferris wheels
mix time and laughter into their spin
and then comes twilight
and a vacant lot
of endless cycles:
hide and seek in a night-time labyrinth
and then the night walks begin
this fear of emptiness
—time is not a straight line

a warning to the curious:
don't ever trust the stars
to guide you
in the black hit of space
the warmth of our flare's lifespan
is a true testament to the skill and sorcery
found in every limb, larynx
and lovelorn heart
of this dimming voidance

#life #death #existence #mortality #remembrance #time

Daniel Lockerbie Oct 2022

Finite

It's funny how
when we are young
we believe we can do anything.

Our youth has lied to us,
making us think
that we will last forever.

One day we wake up
and realize
that the bed we lie in
has become our new grave.

We thought we had
so many days,
so much time to waste,
and then one day we find
that time has drifted away
like the air between our fingers.

Thoughts as I approach my 30th birthday. I still remember the first poem I ever posted on this site almost 10 years ago. Time moves so quickly.

#youth #mortality #death #finite