#mortality poems on Hello Poetry

Man Jan 30

Boa

I have no fear of anyone who opposes me,
Shall I live? Forever, I am
****** to die, regardless
Of the life I lead. So,
To nihilism and cynicism; should I cling?
Or fight for my ideals and beliefs?
What is it, to fight? To be violent, to the pacifist;
To resist violence, with pacifism.

I fear no man that would oppress me,
Shall you live? Never, would I
Bend the knee before being
Brought to kneel. Rightly,
You can **** me
But what I die for lives on;
Drown in the wake
Of those that love,
Those that bleed

What peace allows;
Time to think, of
What freedom means

#existential #idealistic #optimistic #cynical #heartfelt #justice #violence #pacifism #mortality #confessional

Carlo C Gomez Sep 2020

The Girlfriends of Dorian Gray

~
We don't need
Other worlds
We need mirrors

We need thin waists
And a hysteresis curve
To the hips

Let us drink in the sea
And laugh as our number
Comes up

Let us commit
To be noncommittal
And talk nary a word

On age and death
Over afternoon tea
In the bright withered garden

Where the goodness of man
Longed to be more
Than its darkling reflection
~

#good #bad #decisions #love #relationships #literature #mortality #morality #lesson

Robert C Howard Sep 2023

Earth Song

EARTH SONG
In that brief interval
Between first and final dust
Comes the song.

Lying supine in my crib,
With limbs flailing,
My curious eyes meet
Those of strangers
hovering above my cradle.

They sing softly to me
And I am mysteriously calmed.

In time I too will learn to sing
The names of everything -
Of what to do and why
And learn to check the ragings
Of my feral heart.

Someday I will sing the day long -
Serenading the fruits of the soil -
Belting out tunes of celebration
Or chanting lamentations of loss and sorrow.

But now, lying in my cradle
With arms and legs flailing,
I listen with curiosity
To the mysterious music that comes
In that brief interval
Between first and final dust.

April, 2008

#birth #song #mortality

Carlo C Gomez Sep 2023

Wreckage Rider

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