DEATH SONNETS

The assignment called for poems about death, evoking the blazon. i suggested using the sonnet form but a few people ventured away from that idea. i find these to be, overall, excellent.

CLAIRE DURLING

Death

Coldness strikes my cheek like a vicious blow,

Forgetting my glasses was the least of my worries now;

Visions and screeching begin to come with a flow

Then the sweat and the dirt on my curdling brow.

A tunnel I see, endless and white

Then face and a hand show me the way;

A thundering voice cries with a powerful might,

He tells me to wait, today’s not the day.

Backward I sail, rewinding each day of my life

My dead mother’s face, my brother’s agony;

Seeing it all replenished my strife,

It created my hate, I forgot I was phony.

Now the table exists, why am I here?

Someone wanted you back she said;

Her face so familiar, red with the fear,

Sir, you’re alive now; I believe you were dead.

Matthew Valeriote

Death

My dear, this passage is all about you.

My peers would surely find this quite perplexing.

And some of them might even find it vexing.

But I assure you these feelings are true.

I long to feel the warmth of your cold grip.

To run my fingers through your barbed wire hair.

To lock my eyes into your vacant stare.

To kiss your fingers down to the sharp tip.

Believe me; I’ve seen all your many suitors.

Vying for your love with shiny things.

Like silly toy guns loaded with a spring.

It’s safe to say those amateurs need tutors.

You ask me why I have such lust for thee,

Well plain and simple, my last girlfriend left me.

Nicole Whitman

The World’s Savior

Death is Peaceful
like a doctor, curing its victims of illness
or a psychiatrist, relieving their patients stress
like a therapist, eliminating their problems
or a mother, washing away the tears of her child
Death is a savior
preventing overpopulation and hunger
taking the lives of the weak and troubled
in order to spare innocent and untainted others
Death is the epitome of forgiveness and salvation
returning the sins of its prey to the earth
providing them with the opportunity to bloom a fresh
as green buds rising up from the ground
healthy, happy, and rejuvenated

KATHRYN CHUN

It begins shifting in the muddy ground,

Which trees soak up in winter time.

Then works its way on unsuspecting bare legs,

For coldness is a natural crime.

It hits you in the gut and stings intestine

And shrivels every heaving muscle,

As flesh withers to its destiny

Of being soiled paper.

It sucks out breath from ones chest,

It sucks out work which toiling years,

Have puffed and hardened with strange caress.

It holds one’s face in a clammy grip-in one’s wild fears.

But holds your hand like mother has,

Comforting in your infant years.

Hannah Tyndall

A veil of black may begin at the top

And a face of dark abyss may frighten

The neck is frail and snaps with a pop

And the shrill voice makes sense heighten.

Yet the shoulder scoop down to skeletal hands

That seem to lack that powerful grip

Of the legends that shadow so many lands

That pointless is seems to gaze below the hip

For some can ignore this faintly figure

And look broadly at the more important picture.

IMAN HABEL

final kiss

so dearly my love looks into my eyes

words not uttered only tears I feel

flashes of memories softly play movements on my lips

my beloved walks around me like the shadow that possesses my soul

waiting for the right moment to take me home

so lovingly does it caresses my life,

so lovingly does it caresses my soul

I hear the breeze that tells me its time

I welcome my love who I knew I would see,

I smile for I hope the world unseen is better than this

a sweet kiss on my lips by my beloved takes my last breath

My beloved carries me to the place I desire

Our bed the dirt I walked upon

Our life the unseen and unknown of the now

CATHERINE STOBLE

A Fatal Love

Oh death, my beloved, you seem so far

Yet you may be just out of my sight

You seem as though a bright glowing star

Hovering above me on a dark hazy night

I cannot tell which way you go,

Or when you will come around to catch me in my sleep;

Like a lurking lion waiting for a lame doe

You are constantly embedded in my mind so deep;

Sweetly you caress my long flowing hair

Like a young mother strokes the skin of her newborn,

But you are not like this mother since you do not care

You would take it all away by the beginning of the morn

Nonetheless, at times you can be enticing

Like a ripe green apple which looks so sweet, but is in fact sour

SAM HATAMIAN

His face an antique mirror with a surrounding design
So intricate it tells the story of earth
So overwhelming, one’s heart would explode upon a gander
The reflection telling a different tale
One’s deepest fear, greatest nightmare
Nothing
No life after death, just deep sleep with no dreams
As if one never existed, never had an impact

Fingers cold to the touch
No warm embrace to guide into an afterlife
Just cool ice, the sting of actual knowledge
Sadness envelops as revelations occur
No family, no loved ones remember you

Heart, a computer with a simple code
With input of life and output of death
A simple formula to laugh at the ironies
Of the supposed complexities of the human mind

Nneka Umeh

SILENT KILLER

She is a silent killer

A serpent,

Confident in her acts,

She plans her attacks

Often sneaky in her ways,

She preys on both the strong and weak

Young and the old,

Beware of her we are told,

To bring misery and pain is her goal

From the individual to loved ones, she never fails

The devil is her best friend,

Broken hearts impossible to amend

A scream cannot scare her away,

An army cannot bring her down nor stop her

A powerful force, an unwelcome visitor

RYAN MENDOZA

Bright hair hint towards the happy future placed

In fields of apples, chasing vigorously after ghosts

With nothing but empty water bottles as eyes,

Paralyzing with glares of Medusa but comforting

Promises of milk and honey leads one forward.

The lips tells of the futility of the race and

Reflect the burning unreachable surface of

The sun, however delivering surrounding beams,

Whether desired or feared beyond earth.

The body blurs into the background as a

Chameleon hides but does not quiver and

A gazelle runs but rarely gets caught and

A egg hatches as a rooster before the farmer

Does so much as rises to its call: sleeping, sleeping.

KAITLYN RYAN

she is so beautiful

it is easy to love her

to follow her

she flickers a beautiful smile

her blonde hair floats like ink diffusing in water

her soft curves of hips, breasts, shoulders

all wrapped in gauzy white

she is a gentle floating angel

her silky, pale finger beckons

the terror of realization is overwhelming

but it will not let go

the beauty is gone

the hair is now dark

it whips around the sharp edges of the ugly face

the body is now hard and growing in size

a piece of obsidian, it cuts

the now black gauze swiftly sails in all directions

closes around you

it’s cold and suffocating

the sound of silence is piercing

HANNAH OBANNI

Your silky veils enshroud me

as I am carried on your hypnotic sea

towards the gates

Where there lie sensuous dreams

Upon twilight skies

Your mysterious curves flow like the calm river,

on a moonless night.

Your beauty takes my breath

‘till I can no longer convey my love.

This kiss of death is what I lived for

That one moment where my soul was elevated

Out of body high.

Being grounded no longer an option

As I follow you into the dark.

CORY HASKELL

You have been with me a long time.

You started off so small, so far from memory

Your frail body no bigger than the thought I gave you

A body white as snow yet dark as night

Eyes that stared into eternity

As time went on you grew, slowly becoming stronger

You began to walk along side me, always beside me

Though you did not always make yourself known

You were quiet some days like a whisper

And others you roared like a lion

As we walked I leaned on you more and more

Your now strong shapely arms helping me

I think it will be time for you to carry me soon

And finally I will be able to sleep like you did in my arms

All those years ago

FRANKEES SAMAD

To die for

Your taste is bitter sweet

As I enter into your lips

Your hands cold and dark

Like your shadowy face in the light

I cannot recognize you, I’ve never seen you before

In my life

Your voice is horrid

And so is your smell

You remind me of a man I once knew

A man who deeply fell ill

He spoke of such a place

Dark, soulless, and grave

He told me never to take the hand

Of such a man, but I did