Best Departing Poems
The monks gave me a bag of Thai oranges
Before I left for the States.
Next time I come, I’ll have learned more Lao,
I promise.
They promise there will be more to show the next time.
Sitting outside the Khop Jai Deu restaurant
Waiting for my bus to come
Elvis is crooning “Return to Sender”
Because there’s no such number,
And no such home.
I took a photo of the fountain
Next to the Scandinavian Bakery,
Tuk-tuk drivers loitering nearby.
Handing them some fruit,
They ask, “How long are you staying in Laos?”
And I reply,
“This is my last day.”
The sun looks like it could be peeled wide open
While I take a bite of a giant orange,
Trying to wring out a last memory from this light,
Wondering when the King’s song is ever going to end
The scent of citrus on my hand
Sinks deeply past my bones,
Trying to harden into an anchor
The shape of a kind heart.
As spring departs
In the wind and rain
Termites swarm
I know you.
Candles lit, incense fuming,
You like it when I bite your neck, just hard enough.
Blankets thrown about the room
So recklessly, they refold themselves.
And we roll down a hill together,
Kissing the leaves, tickling with our eyes,
Laughing with our hearts.
"Once you get on that plane, you're not coming back, are you?"
"No," I say. Because only
Nothing
Lasts forever.
And it spills through the cracks in your hands
The moment you grasp it.
Like water from a stone.
She bites my neck
Drawing lines of ecstasy down my back with her fingernails
Spilling into me, fighting my words.
"I leave when the sun sets."
I have thought of this very hard
For I have played every card
The sunset is coming fast
Leaving behind all my past
My life with you can not be
I will not pay this fee
Like the worm that kills the apple
The HIV of my chapel
When it rains I am clean
No more of the obscene
And when the sun shines though
I have something else to pursue
"Threat" is the word that made mothers worry about their child.
Disposable face masks have been our weapon to combat.
The whole quarantine thing tolerates people to be wild.
I got crazy for months at home; I was never like that.
It took several sips of coffee for Dad to realize.
That this year has crippled his pocket yet he stays survive.
Tea parties and schooling are now digitized.
It shifted routines and lifestyles; Thank God I’m alive!
Isolation was the healing to tie up the families’ bond.
It is the greatest magic that the virus has ever done.
We will depart this year together and correspond;
Be vaccinated by faith and hope; we will rise like a sun.
2020 has been the news flash of ups and downs.
We should start to adapt to change and embrace the "new normal".
Let us paint fireworks in the skies with no frowns.
I hope we will live in 2021 like there is nothing but normal.
the times that were together shared
the times for each the other cared
a moment there a minute here
immortal days of boundless cheer
golden hours of trading dreams
joyful eyes with happy gleams
a trusting and attentive ear
for griefs alone too hard bear
the welcome hand the open door
the knowing of what friends are for
clear and bright and ever warm
of endlessly delightful form
a friendship of the best of friends
perhaps to last until time ends
a friendship made of inlaid gold
in magic draughts of silver rolled
endless hours spent together
in sultry sunny Summer weather
we talked we sang we laughed and read
and on occasion danced instead
then the Fall 'neath leaves of gold
beside those trees uniquely old
accompanied by trilling birds
we shared a thought and lacked for words
but winter saw us bid farewell
the tree limbs bare a gray pastel
surrounding all on every side
a snowy blanket deep and wide
though friendship never ceased to burn:
you gave a promise to return
Spring brought branches tipped with green
furry creatures little seen
and roused the sun from Winter's rest
and Spring brought you and that was best
another season now has fled
left Summer snugly tucked in bed
as now we have to part once more
('tis no simpler than before)
we've grown together you and me
but partings sometimes have to be
so leaving going gone away
Fate at last has had its say
o when are we to meet again
how bleak and dry the time 'til then!
Departing storm you've wreaked your wrath
As such I've seldom seen
The power of your winds and rain
Ripped through county Racine
With straight line winds, tornado too
And lightning bright as day
The savage fury of your approach
Cause trees to bend and sway
And at the peaking of your pass
My kitty was not found
For under bed he hid away
'Til your ferocity calmed down
And as I see you slip away
into the dark of night
I breathe a sigh of great relief
But know you're not contrite
Goodbye to you, departing storm
To your thunder and lightning complicity
I'd watch the radar to see you leave
But you left me without electricity
The sweet, sweet smell of a departing soul.
Your face blurring with my tears,
as your warm hand grows cold.
The sound of children weeping breaks the heart,
with tears flowing down their cheeks,
salty kisses to part.
For the "Senses" contest.
And to the past they rode
The Shining Host: lent death
or immortality
by golden sands of time.
Call not them back
Lest to discover that
They who last held
Rome's bright light
Were marauders
Filled with spite
Nor recall
Their lovers fair
And find them sluts
Or, robbed of time's gifts,
Now only wizened mutts
Let them go.
But catch the insubstantial tales,
Akin to Kingly gossamer threads.
Only dusty spider's webs
By noon's blinding light
but the silk of dreams' delight
In evening's gentle dales.
** I know that this is too short to be a lay, but I don't really have a time to write a new poem (especially something as long as a lay), and I don't want to break my pattern and re-use a style. When it comes time for me to spend a week on each of the types of poetry I am writing this month, I will write real lays, I promise. Also, the title is subject to substantial change**
Honed from old habits, you leave us once again
Leaving again, the way of lovers departing...
Oh, departing sun, you linger in the dusk
In dusky mauve, so reluctant to say goodbye
Goodbye you speak in many tongues
Forked tongues of light, you spread your words in gold
And with a golden hand, and fingers spread
You spread your promise, vast against the sky
Where sky, that mingles with the crimson earth
Unite the earth and thee to blend
You blend, and lend your colors rich....
Rich in soft pastels, ...until,....until you come again
___________________________________________________
Inspired by the Contest: "Wreath on the Flavor of Dusk"
Sponsored by Nette Onclaud
By Carrie Richards 8/12/12
Sometimes in your life,
a point you reach,
there are those who matter,
and those that don't recipricate,
then sorrow begins to alate!
Fore when they choose,
to be less benevolent,
a vacuum will permeate,
fore there will always be,
some other yearning to percolate.
Worry less about the past,
undoubtedly there was lucidity,
why they reveled around in treason,
early on in your crisis season,
they're absent for that reason!
I reached into the depth...
But could not withdraw Excalibur from the stone.
Yet I knew I was the one.
Why else my 'Grail Vision' in the sun?
The depths call me to reach further still.
And Mary's eyes bled.
Realizing for whom the tear's shed.
I know not what to do.
Vainity reaching to withdraw from the glue.
I stare blindly in the distance a 'bust' of my former self.
Passing the secret of excalibur being drawn by someone else.
And passing by the oracle of Ephesus, Medusa's eyes
She drew the sword stone in deep catching my contemplations of the mirror.
I could loose myself in her forever.
Secret Sweets. Stained Sheets. and shaking cold she wraps me in the golden fleece.
Covered in snakes, I melt into the secret skin.
Learning the name, I see my fathers before me distrought.
And see now the blindness of the Kingdom Oedipus wrought.
Sophoclese Tragedies and I am forever Oedipus.
Betrayed blessin' between whorish thighs and my camarades' lies.
Where is Helena these days?
Gone so long, I've forgotten her ways.
That's the trick-she sucks in your depth.
I am Horus, my seeds sewn in the west.
Innana's dead. I broke my maiden-named womb.
Long ago I allocated multiversic kingdoms for Osiris' perversion tombs.
And in the mysteries of deep misery.
I have witnessed my seed coming of age.
To lay thoughts like these out on a page.
Christ, Annubis, and I planned this on a street in Greece, A.D., B.C. I can't remember which.
I bare down frost-bitten from the North.
And my Christ of peace bore symbols from the East.
Our dog-eared down-home friend brought simpler lessons from an outdated South.
And we witnessed our births spread out over time.
Three wise men we were singing dark-hearted songs of a blackened Madonna we couldn't find.
So we relinquished ourselves to Daddy Darkest who knew best.
Redistributed seeds, we pushed ourselves to a static line beyond myth; where men like us no longer needed to exist.
Sweet Virgin, Return
I am old and worn thin.
Now, is your time to begin; A collection of stories your heart has borne, but you lay unblemished.
My daughter lay our bones to rest.
Cook them in your stew.
Reigns handover long overdue, but that's not the style you do.
Don't worry about ole Paw. Jimmy Crack corn.
May you be Princess Disarming Charming laced with meaning...
And I awake sleeping...
Beauty, I next to you.
Departing:
You said you loved me.
I fell for you lie.
I truly thought I loved you.
You made it a joke.
I want it real for me.
I need it true
why did you lie to me,
when life was so cruel?
You need to know
I don't need you
thinking I was not everything I needed
wishing I had that
wanting to be what not
I now understand, I don't need you.
Copyright ©2008 Marissa Stoops
You have nothing to forgive, you have nothing to forget.
You have nothing to re live, you have nothing to regret.
You have nothing to be afraid of, you have nothing but my respect.
You have nothing ever again to ever worry about, because you are dead.
Departures!
We are all departing,
Beings of departure belonging to no one
And we lack all the knowledge of it
From the first day we came,
Our aim has been to move on,
To reach our goals.
Enough!
You have turned me into a prey!
I noticed lately, how wantonly
You look at me from your garden,
Stalking, stealthily trailing my back
And sometimes hovering over my head.
Are you really courting me?
I hope you know how uneasy, how hard
It is for one to cross-carpet?
It's very hard especially when
On the other side, little is known
Except some speculations of a green pasture.
The stage is the world where we perform;
It has the cry, we have the pain and
The triumph we relish makes it more daring
To stay put, to battle, to lose, to win.
There's bound to be little reluctance here
And there, like trying to make up one's
Mind on buying a sunshade instead of a cap.
It's even harder to make up ones mind
Especially when nothing tangible would change
Only a regress to that beginning
When the flesh is fresh and new.
Departure! That's our agony
Will it ever end?
The regression, the continuing from scratch,
The opening of new pages and chapters,
Is that what we are made for?
That is, becoming invisible at a point
Or merely disappearing into a dark night.
Living is the beginning of dying
And dying, the beginning of living.
But I'd be wild awake that day
When life and death would seal the deal
And life hands over change of ownership
Certificate of me. I'm reminded of,
If you know the feeling, how sad
It is to be cast out, sold in the midst of life,
As if unwanted, like a broken toy,
An object, once cherished and wanted!
It's sad to be forgotten, committed to memory.
It's sad indeed! But that day,
I'd simply raise my legs
One after the other, reluctantly and
Cross over to the other side, smiling.
Date written: 05/15/2018
Contest name: "A Poem about Death" Poetry contest
Sponsor: Broken Wings
Theme: In the Midst of Life