Death Poems

[Jack Galmitz]

Thank you so much, Don!
Jack

[DavidGrayson]

Wow ... a terrific poem, Jack.

[Jack Galmitz]

Dave
I'm glad you like the poem.
Your praise raises my spirits!
Jack

[hairy]

Awesome poem, Jack..Thanks for sharing!

I've read where the greatest wish of a dying person is to hold hands with a loved one. I've witnessed it.

hospital vigil. . .
her firm grip
softens

  --Al Fogel

[Jack Galmitz]

Beautiful, touching poem, Al.
It captures wonderfully the moment of passing and the sorrow of the one left behind!!

[hairy]

Thank you so much , Jack! Pleased that you were touched and moved to comment.

Al 

[Seaview (Marion Clarke)]

Al, your hospital vigil poem brought me back to my dying father's bedside two summers ago.

The day before he died (and the last time I saw him alive) he was very agitated and was slipping in and out of consciousness due to morphine. His hand suddenly started to wave about and I reached out and held it. He immediately became calm and seemed to sleep, but woke up and looked at me as I left. He died in the early hours of the morning and none of us got there on time. I just wish I had sat holding his hand all that night.


I discover too late
that my hand on his
gave such comfort

[DavidGrayson]

Hi Al and Seaview,

Al - I really enjoyed your poem.

Seaview - What struck me about your poem is that the comfort went both ways. You, too, were comforted by your father's hand.

David

[hairy]

Hello Dave & Marion C:

Dave: glad you related.

Marion C: thank you so much for sharing your bedside vigil poem. Bittersweet. But you did your best. We learn from every experience--esp those moments imbued with heartfelt emotion.

Al

[Seaview (Marion Clarke)]

Thanks David - it is true, I felt very close to my father that day. Although we had a great relationship, my father was not a sentimental person and we are not being a very 'touchy feely' family so we didn't have much physical contact. Holding his hand was something I'd thought about for a few days when he was in hospital. I just wish I'd made that move earlier.

Thanks Al. I still can't believe Dad is gone. So much of what I do is filled with his memory ... he was extremely knowledgeable on a wide range of subjects and was an inspirational man. I loved listening to his former colleagues talking about him after the funeral. They had such a lot of respect for him, and told me of his great sense of humour.

[onyxphoenix]

I wrote these the other night after reading the ones here, and the article of Sandra's. There can hardly be a more difficult and sensitive subject.

illness

you were whiter
than death
- peace now, love



suicide

the nectarines are still hard
they will be sweet
- you should have waited

[Andy]

My youngest brother died in 1979, long before I discovered haiku.  I wrote this recently:

summer sky
that cloud looks like
my brother

[AlanSummers]

Dear Andy,

We often look for faces and humanness in other objects, and this desire or comfortability is aptly displayed in your haiku.

It is wonderfully uplifting despite its poignancy.

Alan

My youngest brother died in 1979, long before I discovered haiku.  I wrote this recently:

summer sky
that cloud looks like
my brother

[pat nelson]

Andy,

What a wonderful tribute to your brother!
The lightness - I hear it in a whisper.
Prayerful.

Best regards,
Pat

My youngest brother died in 1979, long before I discovered haiku.  I wrote this recently:

summer sky
that cloud looks like
my brother

[Andy]

Alan, Pat thank you for your kind words.

Andy