dVerse Poets – Open Link Night
Mish is hosting Open Link Night at dVerse – the night we choose a poem to post.
Photo: unsplash.com
“It is the denial of death that is partially responsible for people living empty purposeless lives ….” Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
And Yet
She was never shy
and so we kept hidden
somewhere out back for
her own sake, you understand,
too brazen, taken to impulsive acts,
impetuous, ill-mannered,
an embarrassment to us all,
but she got our recently,
crept through her window
to play in the streets,
lifting her skirts at all,
laughing derisively as
they run, as run they should
in this season of the
end of everything where we
have hidden from ourselves,
while death has cast her shadow
and yet returned us to life.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
I loved this layered poem where you have cleverly used the metaphor of a young girl to represent death.Brilliant
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Denial seems to be the vogue sadly. I was struck by Evelyn Waugh’s “The Cry Of The Loved One” where he uses the novel to show how the American funeral industry was beginning to deny death in its language and practice. The west does not live with death like many other cultures that do in my view. Thank you so much for your thoughts on this Megha.
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Yes you are very correct in saying that.
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I like your description of this season as the “season of the
end of everything”.
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I’m wondering how you’re coping in the crisis, it felt bad here but we’ve got a handle on it at present, it felt like it could be the end.
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I think we have a handle on the virus at present as well. I am more concerned about the economy. But I have been concerned about it for years.
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Glad to hear that there’s some positives. We had hoped here it might move in a progressive way in regards to the economy, it hasn’t, sigh.
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What a thoughtful poem! The ramifications of the reality of death are many-faceted.
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I feel that we are often in a material denial, I had this in me for a while. Thank you Beverly.
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Masterful.
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Thank you so much for that Sandy.
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Certainly.
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“while death has cast her shadow
and yet returned us to life”
COVID-19 has been a mixed bag, of sorts. It’s unfortunate that it takes a tragedy to bring people together (yet apart in their separation).
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So agree Ken, a mixed bag indeed. Thank you for the thoughtful response.
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Excellent work.
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Many thanks indeed.
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Oops how could you compare a cheerful young girl with Corona 😀
Injustice isn’t it 🙂
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The life within death, death is a vibrant force, but generally we deny its existence in the west. 🙂
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Thanks Paul.
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Pleasure Rupali.
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Oh I enjoyed your unique personification of death. We do need a wake up call to live our lives with purpose. I wonder how many will see that light.
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Yes, I wonder that too Mish, thank you.
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Very interesting poem – I like the last 2 lines “ while death has cast her shadow, and yet returned us to life” very powerful (I like the other lines too 😆)
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🙂 thank you for sharing that, I wanted to say how we need to attend to death in ordeer to see life.
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