As Roots Intertwine Flesh

I wrote this for the "Grave Poem" assignment my Creative Writing teacher gave in class last year.

 

Let no coffin bear

my bones, nor flesh.

 

Let Mother Nature take back her kin;

and watch as her roots wrap around me,

watch the motherly arms cradle

as flesh and bone decompose,

becoming one with the earth.

 

Weep not, Family, for I’m still here,

but only in the whispers of an obscured afterlife--

neither Heaven nor Hell acknowledged--

allowing this adventurous ghost to linger happily

as a shadow of my former self

with consciousness sustained.

Through glimmering, amber-hued eyes

of a silhouetted lupus,

who walks between both realms,

you will know it is my wandering shadow.

You will sense familiarity in those eyes.

 

I’ll be the very air you breathe;

the essence you consume.

For my earthly being will return

in the bosom of Mother Gaia

and be whole with the natural world.

You mustn’t confine my being;

mustn’t hide Nature’s cold corpse

in Man’s wooden box six feet under.

Have no stranger preach over me

with the same mundane words spoken to the Dead.

Prefer to hear your own goodbyes

because it’s comforting to feel loved ones'

voices vibrate a warmth

against the cold dirt cradling me

than to have a stranger give a false lament,

which is just as cold as the dirt.

So grant me this pleasure

and keep me in memory.

Reviews

[Pax Analog]

Eloquent! I've noticed more edgy grace in some young ones' writing about death and mortality, than supposedly older and wiser folk. Intriguing. I think it's because Life comes up just a bit root hipper each generation -- of the smarter souls. Methinks genericism just gets dumber.

Anyway, I like this poem very much. It manages to be humorous, brooding, smart, and poignant all at once.

I imagine you pinned with a 1st Place ribbon for this: Best Dirt Nap Dirge by a Young Old Soul.

Gravely good work!

[GTVile]

Wow, very good. You capture the mood so well! The spirit of the spirit is echoed in the airy circumstances and the setting belies the fate of Ego in such well-scripted verse. I wouldn't change a thing. Excellent.

[Mark]

I think we concur in what I take to be your belief, that if you had no beautiful words, tears, or benfits to share with me while I was alive, then you damn well better not after I'm dead! I've often wondered what it is that the buyers of steel-lined concrete sarcophagi are protecting themselves FROM??

[Rick Puetter]

Dear Paranoidschizoangel,

Wow!

"Let no coffin bear
my bones, nor flesh."

"I'll be the very air you breathe;
...For my earthly being will return
in the bosom of Mother Gaia...
You mustn't confine my being..."

What spectacular sentiments, and what an insightful, world-wise and yet transcendent view of existence. You mix knowledge of our earth-bound, mortal existence with a soaring and spiritually-releasing vision of the unity of all things in nature. And your poem implores those left behind not to rob you of a quick reunion with nature. This write is very eastern-philosophy in flavor, a reunion with Brahman, the inexplicable, incognizable source of all things. And the mechanics of the poem are excellent as well.

So congratulations on a fabulous poem. Highest marks.

Best regards,

Rick

[deeps]

Now This is AWESOME!
I like this alot.
The wording, the flow.
Eveyrthing just held together.
Well written.