Best Afterlife Poems
I drown you in wine, the goddamn squatter
who lives in me. Flow, Lethe, dark and deep!
But even through a drunken dreamless sleep,
like a nude drowned man in see-through water,
the memory is seen… That very sunny
day on the river, tender girlish hands
doing my back with sunscreen, lots of plans
for future, reckless air, easy money,
the coolness of the depth… All of a sudden
a spasm! a cramp!
a zigzag
lightning
pain!
that lit up something? someone? I would fain
forget but the remembrance, mixed with blood in
my veins, with coldest sweat in my nightmares,
stayed in for good… The rescue team did well:
I’m still alive but, tell me, why the hell
I often feel like going downstairs
to river beach, undressing, diving deeper
under the water and taking a breath?
The habitant inside of me shrugs: “Death
is quite familiar to every sleeper
and swimmer. Death is, so to speak, a river
which flows from the future to the past,
a metaphor of time. Don’t look aghast
at this phenomenon but you should quiver
in fear just thinking of the one you saw
down there, at the bottom of your soul.
Who could this be? Don’t look through the keyhole
of the imaginary but real door
between realities”…
Or I just think
he says it, and the truth is I did sink
long time ago.
Meet me there ...
Be it rain or shine,
Since I like both
Any weather is fine
Find me there ...
With those already met,
To mingle there ...
With ones I haven't yet
In a good place where
We can laugh and smile,
And talk to the ones
Not seen in awhile
I'll be going there
When my time comes,
I'll be waiting there
With my old chums
Promise me now ...
You will cry no tears,
And meet me there
In one hundred years.
Journey to the Afterlife - in Blue
The funeral barge of zaffre and gold sails
as sunlight reflects like ultramarine diamonds
on River Nile. In the shade of a turquoise canopy,
under the bright azure of heaven, Nefertiti lies,
draped in cobalt royal robes, regal
in silent sapphire. Behind cerulean death mask,
her spirit wanders in electric indigo dreams,
through peaceful fields of periwinkle clouds,
to the heart of a lush, lapis lazuli oasis.
With Osiris her soul now comes to rest...
in the deep calm cyan of the afterlife.
07-13-2018
Contest: A Poem NA'd in July Contest
Sponsor: Dear Heart a.k.a Broken Wings
Placement: 2nd
There is a her shaped hole in this world
A black void
If you look hard enough you can still see the sparkles of the departed
Black diamonds of the afterlife
The entrance left open
In case he needs to follow
It's not in the leaving she said
It's in the living once I'm dead
The cold cold bed Sat in our room
The silence in the telephone
This is what the worst will be
The carrying on without me
It isn't in the leaving she sighs
It's in the knowing I didn't survive
She asked him once to be brave
Carry on forget her name
Give some meaning to his life
Leave behind the cold dead wife
How can you love me she asked
When all I want is to depart
How am I faithfully yours she cried
He just looked at her and sighed
It isn't in the leaving she cried
It's in the living once I've died
Where I'm going has no name
The darkness consumes me again and again
I'll wait for you she said
She promised as in life and death
I warned you along the way she said
I tried to make you see
I never belonged to your world
I was never truly me
I belong to the nether world
I was put here by mistake
I'm waiting for it to draw me back
To take again my place
This is what she's seeing there
He's too used up to even care
Watching his restless nights and days
Keeping the haunting mind at bay
The last vision in his head is his wife hanging above the bed
My chest keeps echoes no one hears,
what once was warm now sweeps as mist,
a weight unseen, too dense to lift.
Each crack leaves marks that melts
yet roots begin to breathe beneath the soil.
But where you bore, now empty lies,
a soul planted thin beneath the skies.
At early bright, I wear a stranger's smile.
At night, I drifts a lonely mile.
The roses died but the thorns still remain...
and the joy slipped out without a name.
I feel the yank to sink beneath,
to whisper words, my mouth won't speak.
My voice is dust, it melts to stone,
a quiet scream that dies alone.
You glimmer faint in twilight's haze,
a scar that kept from golden days.
I dream of us the way we were,
before the quiet did arise.
One truth remains through changing skies;
a trace of you that never dies.
No blade and no bleak could cut apart
the quiet thread that ties my heart.
Am I unmade or only veiled?
A gentle quiet where the glow feels lost,
no flare ignites and no I'll will takes carry.
Only a calm that meanders through the horizons.
Now rest plunges as starlight falls
a tender serene that softens all.
The spirit arise.
The tonnage gone.
The years melt their grip restrained.
The years vanish and the pain is gone
but something brighter lingers on.
In endless night,
the spirit glows-
a long life ends yet deeper grows.
I held the hand of Jesus last night,
He woke me this morning and we looked outside.
Scratchy records played protest songs from
The 60’s, as hearses rolled by, filled with forgotten
dreams….”you can burn that paper box, boy, but
you still gotta show”
I dropped out, then got drafted, I told him…when
I came home, It wasn’t first class, you can’t breathe
oxygen in a box, stacked with my mates in the bowels
of the plane….
Now…… I like to pretend no one fights anymore,
everyone sings songs of love, pleasing to the old
trees, swaying in peace…..
Sunshine streamed upon
this page just now!
just this moment!
........my pen
shadows to the right of this word….I’m lighter now,
brighter,
……..brighter
03/18/11
6:49 pm
© All Rights Reserved
The afterlife will be full of surprises
Nothing like I might expect it to be,
No pearly gates or streets of gold--
Things won’t mean anything to me.
Life is surrounded with the material--
Money, possessions, things, and such,
In the next dimension* I’ll be spiritual
Material things won’t mean so much.
I will not be limited by time or space
In fact, I can’t imagine how it will be,
But I know it will be a heavenly place
And that will be enough to satisfy me.
#58 on the New Poems List
Poetry Soup - April 15, 2022
Written March 16, 2022
(I call the "afterlife" or "heaven"
"the next dimension.")
Green is my Love, and all she touches, blossoms!
And from her fingers, golden flecks appear!
Green is my Love, her lips always Truthsaying,
She does not even know the name of Fear!
Green are her Eyes, as dark as moss, as agate…
And from her heart floods forth the Healing heat!
Green was our Love, whene’er Life took her from me
And Green the way on which, Life set our feet!
Green was the night, when came the spiraling winds!
And from them, blew a whistling, like a train!
Green was my strength, when I held her sash, long moments,
But dark swallowed her and tore my heart in twain!
Green my good-bye was, pale, and wan, and thin,
And from my eyes, cold diamonds, frozen, fell…
Green, all I saw, shadows weaving, all about me
That day, I knew the surly name of Hell!
Green were the demons that tried and tried to stop her.
All that they did failed heartily at the end!
Carried her off to the ends of sanity!
Up, up in the sky, where the merciless lightnings bend!
Green is my Love, now all she touches, flowers!
And from her fingers, golden sparks do flow…
Green is my Love, now, lies in her Presence, wither!
And from my Heart, like a lark, she’ll never go!
3/19/2019
The parade of endless colors is over,
All the leaves are dead or dying.
Scurrying about like frantic crabs.
Back and forth across an icy-icy land.
Clinging along the fence line of time.
Swirling about cul-de-sacs and doorways.
Like gothic teens with little reason to shine.
...but unchained from their master's paradise.
Unchained from the dance of emerald lies.
Soon these bronzed, arthritic children
will wrinkle into oblivion.
If our soul is also mind
And we don’t leave it behind,
Then afterlife will be okay;
There is space for lots of play.
. . . and with a haughty drink
of Virgil’s water
from the River Lethe
I venture forth knowing nothing
bring on the steps ahead
and what awaits . . .
but the waters have a taste
and some things feel familiar
a few of the steps ahead
look like my footprints
turning to a river
I feel I once chanced upon
and sensing
I am but circles within circles
I am in this quiet place.
I can hear laughter as they race,
To join me by these waters,
To tell stories of our journeys.
Shortly I feel their touch,
As our hands and faces embrace.
We are happy tonight,
Here in the quiet moonlight.
It is my friends whom I love so dear.
We are dancing and singing with endless cheer.
Then comes a gentle man,
To share in our evening’s plans.
We sit around the edge,
Of the sweet river bed,
Listening with our hearts,
To our Christ, whose words He imparts.
As He tells the water calms,
And the wind suddenly stills.
The sounds of nature all around,
Become quiet, so that He is the only sound.
This penetrates my soul,
As I feel His words unfold,
And I think to myself,
It's worth it, I’m glad I didn't quit.
I could go on like this forever,
And I will, and it will only get better.
For my peace and rest I enjoy,
I am full of eternal life and joy.
I am here in this quiet place, as I see that I’m on earth,
But I know where I will go, as I feel my endless worth.
I can come here at any time, and in time that’s where I’ll be,
To share my forever and eternity, with deity.
there waiting for me
on the other side
i like to think
of all those
before me
who have passed
and one day
will line up
by the light
with open arms
to welcome me
AP: Honorable Mention 2021
in my later years
I ponder the afterlife
and part of me yearns
to meet up with loved ones
gone too soon
they are home
and sometimes
when I’m tired of it all
I miss home
I believe in my soul
earth is the place
celestial beings
choose to visit
when they are bored
with being blissfully happy
and need to put
in perspective
their good fortune
warped as it may be
it’s a game for them
AP: Honorable Mention 2021
This life is full of challenges and tests ~
It's mere preparation for what's to follow
when our souls transcend into the butterflies
that they are meant to become in afterlife.
AP: Honorable Mention 2025