groom for a ghost

01/2014

Empty now I lay so still

you'd think I was dead

but it's a ghost that follows me

when she comes I am at peace

she knows 

I know 

she's there

she moves me to leave

and to return to life

yet I've chosen to stay 

in this world between

to taste spectral lips

to love a beat-less heart 

it is here and only here

I feel alive

Author's Note

In Chinese tradition, a ghost marriage (Chinese: 冥婚; pinyin: mínghūn; literally "spirit marriage") is a marriage in which one or both parties are deceased. Other forms of ghost marriage are practiced worldwide, from Sudan, to India, to France since 1959. The origins of Chinese ghost marriage are largely unknown, and reports of it being practiced today can still be found. - wikipedia

Reviews

[Cascara (aka Sprint Goe..]

Nice to see you back again! I like your author's note: it makes me fascinated about ghost marriages as well.

Beautiful work- by forming a metaphor about love and the deceased, we easily learn about the power of love, and how much love makes us want to be with our significant other for all of eternity.

[Thomas Fitzgerald]

A telling and exact piece, as the reader I feel you want me to yearn for this clarity of coupling, well done, good read.

[Tate Morgan]

Man that is freaky I doubt id be in favor of that arrangement What benefit would it be to the living

[Robbie~xoxo~]

This is heartbreaking, and beautiful...
Love is a strange realm to enter...sometimes we leap in head first... Regardless if it makes sense or not...
You capture the phantom of love's marriage sensually...
Unbound...

Thank you for the author's note... It gave better understanding.
Well penned, Joshua!! :)

[joshua deathdealer]

Thank you Robbie! You've hit the nail. It truly is eternal..immortal. xo

[Mikayla Rasmussen]

i thought the poem was amazing already and then i read the story behind and it was mind blowing. i loved how you showed the beauty behind something that some people may see as ridiculous and barbaric. I admire how it also proves that love doesn't just exist in this world that we have wasted. there is still beauty to be found in other places :) definite 10/10

[joshua deathdealer]

Thank you so much. I was kinda wondering about this poem. It's basic but really said everything I needed to say. I'm glad you connected with it.

[Mikayla Rasmussen]

you're very welcome and i am glad too :) you said it all really well :) awesome job

[David Scott]

You have found a tradition intended to connect disconnected families or leaders. Your words help connect the mind to a lost loved one and connect hearts in pain with a vision.
Sometimes we have to go to the "place " we feel alive before we can wake up to an effective state of being.
I enjoyed your work here Joshua.

[joshua deathdealer]

Thanks for checking it out and for your review. Take care.

[Kenneth The Poet]

Powerful stuff. It stirs the spirits for sure.

[Rachelle]

The intention of most marriages in past China was mainly to unite the ties of two clans and hardly for love. The marriage would be almost always arranged with research on the background of both parties, personally and clan-wise, as managed by the parties' families in coordination with the go-between or matchmaker. A ghost-marriage, then, is a socio-economic and,sometimes, political way of securing wealth, property, social standing or political influence.
Though the practice of arranged marriages and ghost- marriages have mainly been a thing of the past, the practice of investigation of both parties' background still exists - at least in my subculture.

[joshua deathdealer]

Thank you for clarifying. I knew of the arrangement of marriages in China's past. Although I wasn't aware that investigations still goes on. I know in India they do the matchmaking and such. My note was only to show that such a union has been practiced and exists. Thank you again.