Best Pere Poems
Pere Lachaise
Five into the Twentieth
Death is not worth the doing
Life is not worth the living
So I am in-between two worlds
Rotting above the ground
Whilst the corpses laugh in their comfy warm beds
They sleep in peace
I walk upon their heads
Trembling
Seeking solace where there is none
As the leaves fall the season will soon change
I shall remain as I am
Inebriated with ravens and fools
In cafes with strangers
Safely away from the human touch
Wine flowing through my veins
Wine caressing my very pains
The clouds float overhead
Raining on the dead and almost
Feigning hopes when there is none
Five and twenty blackbirds singing deaths song
They offer me a map at the graveyard entrance
How trite, a map to my very own hell
My journey though might be a hard sell
Tumble as I do upon so many stones
Black roses hidden where once they were shown
Bloody nights with both razor and thorn
When I arrived at the morgue
Surely I was scorned
Adélaïde Paillard de Villeneuve
You have no home, not even in death
So it’s with you I wish to hold hands
You the first and I who will never last
I took a trip to Paris, France and of course I wanted to see all the attractions,
walk the boulevards, see the museums and art galleries, linger at an outdoor
cafe watching people stroll while sipping on wine and munching on cheese and
bread. I wanted to float down the Seine by boat at night. But my reason, for
this trip was to go to Le Pere Lachaise Cemetery, for that is where my family
ancestors are buried. I knew it would not be easy to find them as this cemetery
is huge, spread over 110 acres, over one million people buried there since 1804.
I walk the paths
lingering at mossy tombs:
a thousand birds sing
It is an amazing cemetery with many famous people buried there like Chopin,
Oscar Wilde, Monet, Voltaire, Degras and thousands more, but also ordinary
people. From simple unadorned headstones to huge towering monuments.
One needs a guide map to navigate the roads and pathways through this maze
of stone. I finally had to go to the office for direction and help to locate my
ancestors grave sites.
death has no time
for in my heart you exist
the smell of decay:
I found out some disturbing information, the plots are leased for 50, 30, 10
years and if not renewed the remains are removed, boxed and tagged and
moved to Aux Morts Assuary in a single tomb. When the Assuary gets over-
crowed the remains are removed, incinerated and the ashes returned.
And that is where my ancestors are, nothing but ashes in eternal storage. The
Aux Morts (To the Dead) Assuary is closed to the public, I found that very
odd and it made me quite sad. Why, what are they hiding?
And those plots where the remains were removed from are re-leased to others,
well that is how the cemetery can keep up on the burials, apparently there is a
long waiting list. I am happy my family plot is in a cemetery in Canada where
the remains of those buried will never be touched.
___________________
July 25, 2017
Haibun/Le Pere Lachaise Cemetery
Copyright Protected, ID 923378
Written for the Haibun Contest
Sponsor Debbie Guzzi
First Place
As I crossed the gravel way
Of chemim de la Geurite
Through dead leaves that fell astray
I dodged them in a wild mad spree
As I crossed the gravel way
As I climbed up the granite wall
Thick and cold and high
To the top, feeling small
I slid across the rim
As I climbed up the granite wall
Down the other side I went
Through coins strewn about
Through photos and through flowers spent
I slowly crawled along
And down the other side I went
There were people standing over me
People standing high
People with teary eyes did see
The writing on the wall
As there were people standing over me
And as I headed towards chemim Lebrun
I heard some people sing some old forgotten songs
Holding candles of whitish hue
Lamenting a man called Jim
As I headed towards chemim Lebrun
And as I rested for a while
In my house upon my back
I rested with a blissful smile
At the end of my shiny track
As I rested for a while
Birth
Crawl
Tears
Steps
Laughter
Smiles
Fears
Careers
Diseases
Betrayals
Denials
Full circle
Death nears
Tears
Laughter
Frowns
Dead clowns
Dead
In ground
No sound
Silence
Abounds
Behind the polished brass and red cedar
She lifts the florescent bottles and glasses
At her own classy pace
She’s earned that right by now
I understand well
Her beauty a galaxy
Bundled in dark space of the Miami hotel bar
She’ll not be rushed
To chop blend mix slice our Moscow Mules
Folds her arms
Reads the mantle of faces like unfinished portraits
Propped to her easel of cleavage
Makes me read her mind
I like the game
I think she does too
She’s heard a dirty poet’s lonely old thoughts
A thousand times over
At least lust pays attention
Tips well
Passes the night time game of shells
My eyes sit on elbows
Following her Brazilian-French silhouette
Like wind atop the Eifel Tower
Mardi Gras in Sau Paulo
I’d like her to take my hand
For a long autumn walk
To find Jim Morrison’s grave in Pere Lachaise
Ask her name
Strike it like a match
Steal the bourbon
Left on the Lizard King’s sad defiled headstone
Ask her what she really thinks.
away for so long
you tell me you come in peace
but only start wars
Qui nous humble cette terre
Tu est ma victoire
J'ai gardée espoir
La vie si belle
On range les poubelles
Plus d'ennuies
Quand il fait nuit
Sincérités
À nos charités
Bien écrit
Plus d'ennuis
Vous pouvez noter
Nos coeurs n'on pas changés
Les yeux ouverts
Nous sommes bien couverts
Peut où ils demeurent
Ouvres leurs coeurs
À toi mon Seigneur
A legacy for a father
waiting uninspired
Painted by the numbers
paternity required
Angel guardian my lost friend
orphanage exile
Free me on this darkest night
lead me through denial
Empty titled nominee
robbers roost to hide
Salutation waits unborn
seeded but unrhymed
Grand-Pere whose master’s voice
birthed my infant scrawl
Fill me once then fill me twice
— to sire and enthrall
(The New Room: June, 2024)