Death Poems

[DavidGrayson]

Carl Jung was reported to have said that he never met a patient over forty whose problems did not root back to the fear of approaching death (1). The topic of death is an important one for religious thought and for haiku. This year, Robert Epstein has edited and published an anthology of poetry (mainly haiku) about dying and "death awareness." Entitled Dreams Wander On, the collection includes both "death poems" (composed while close to death) and poems more broadly about dying.

Below are several haiku from Epstein's anthology:

terminally ill ...
when I was a kid I tried
to count all the stars

Jerry Kilbride (bottle rockets #14)


and so I agree
not to die before she does
the sound of crickets

Susan Antolin (Artichoke Season)


simmering tofu--
father asks me where I intend
to be buried

Fay Aoyagi (Acorn #24)


all the poems
I've written
melting snow

Carlos Colon (Frogpond 33:1)


reincarnation--
already have a death poem
from the last time

Stanford Forrester


the longest night--
the death poem
rustles

Claire Gallagher (The Heron's Nest 9)


this life ...
a soap bubble beautiful
before it bursts

Kala Ramesh (bottle rockets #15)


d e a t h p o e m t h e l i g h t b e t w e e n t h e l e t t e r s

Ed Markowski (bottle rockets #21)


Are there any haiku about death that you've come across and would like to share? Have you written a death poem?


Notes

(1) Huston Smith, The World's Religions, p. 333.

Note: Original publication credits of the haiku are in parantheses.

[Gabi Greve]

Thanks for introducing the concept of "jisei", last poem, death poem ...

My haiku sensei used to say


Write each haiku as if it was your last one !
There is no tomorrow to reach,
there is only NOW to write.

http://haikuandhappiness.blogspot.com/2007/10/last-haiku.html

and my archery (kyudo) sensei would say

Shoot each arrow as if it was your last one !


Gabi

http://wkdhaikutopics.blogspot.com/2010/11/koha-fragrant-wave.html.

[hairy]

One of my favorites:


a yellow leaf
touching the green ones
on its way down

  --K.Ramesh

the dying touching the living for the last time...this resonates deeply with me

   

[DavidGrayson]

Al,

I like this one, too, for the same reason. The sweet gum (liquidambar) trees on our street in Northern California are beginning to shed their leaves.

Thanks for sharing.

David

[DavidGrayson]

Gabi,

"Write each haiku as if it was your last one ..."

Sage advice.

[Don Baird]

teetering grass ...
just moments ago
a dragonfly

I almost died last year ... a vivid close call.  This is the poem that came from that experience.

Don

[sandra]

Haiku NewZ has recently reprinted an article by George Swede on Western Death Haiku.

If you'd like to read it, please use this link:

http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/node/540

Best,
Sandra
(Haiku NewZ editor)

[DavidGrayson]

Don,

I've read your poem before. Knowing the context makes it doubly powerful; I especially love the word "teetering."

Glad to know you're alright!

David

[Jack Galmitz]

I second that opinion of your poem, Don.
It's a fine, sensitive poem and the history behind it gives it great emotive strength.
Jack

[DavidGrayson]

Hi Sandra,

Thanks for sharing George Swede's essay. I like his categorization of poems, and also the idea of the epitaph as a relative (though he says "precursor") of haiku. The featured haiku are uniformly powerful, and taken collectively are even more so.

David

[Don Baird]

@Sandra:

That's a great link!  Several of those poems literally took my breath.  And, as David mentioned "and taken collectively are even more so" referencing "uniformly powerful".  This shows us once again that there are many very wonderful, powerful and passionate haiku written in English - enriched with the highest author integrity to the art.

[dwightisebia]

REFUSING SURGERY
By Dwight Isebia

Is it a lack of respect for the gift of life,
not wanting them to cut in my body
and to refuse a surgeon to decide
to replace my organs and to attach a device
in order to prolong myself,  using money?

Am I wrong to wish my frame to continue,
without revisions and special measures
interfering with the course of nature,
knowing that such would not avoid departure
at a certain moment in future time,
notwithstanding adjustments I now decline?

Is it true that I refuse because I am too Lazy,
irresponsible, selfish, retarded or crazy?
(DPI 2011)

This is just a reflection. I am not ill personally!
- Dwight P. Isebia (www.scribd.com/disebia)

[willie]

contemplating death
I chuckle at my peasant shoes

[Jack Galmitz]

                Those clouds
                   war horses
                    at their hour

                         Jack Galmitz
                           (The Coincidence of Stars)

[Don Baird]

A fabulous poem, Jack!