Best Vigil Poems

Hold Not A Sad Vigil For Me

Hold not a sad vigil for me
Born of flesh and blood, once was free
Where my soul went, a better place
I ran Life's mysterious race.

Now having taken my last breath
Spirit passed through, cold hands of death
Beg, when I am laid...

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The Vigil   (Octodil)


Late through the night
A flame burns oil.
He sits with weary eyes
In vigil by the bed.
She lies supine; soft is her breath,
Peaceful, serene her pallid face.
He sleeps; she breathes no more.
Oil-starved the flame goes out....

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As moonbeams settle softly on her face,
lay bare the gaunt and haggard visage there,
a woman whose whole life was spent in care
for those who ran and won another race.
Those stippled hands, the measure of her grace,
her shriveled arms, now wasting in despair,
her saddened eyes so...

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(A conjuncture of a
busy mind!)

Oh dear friend if
your health returns
As surely does the
rising sun
May it take this
unyielding waste
From your shallow
face,
Sow the seeds of
vitality
To abide within your
limbs
And behold the
welcome of
Strength regained.

When within a
portrait of
well-being
So vain one scorns
the joys of life
indeed
While destiny left
to the will of God,
Yet...

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silence
across the table
sat with him
dressed in black
in the death of night

while his world slept
they waited there
refusing to slip quietly
in the hush of night



AP: Honorable Mention 2020

Posted on March 3, 2019...

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Mother duck gathers

Baby ducks await their fate 

Shadows overhead...

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air reconnaissance
pale assassin in the night
stealthily stalking...

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To my rivers of thinking needles in my heart to the haters’ smile goes to the cake love, I cannot stop lamenting to lemonade. My comrades they were sealed in plastics bags to pontiff to the sponge looks in the sea bed.
 The African continent...

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At This Wake, None Keep Vigil…*

Time longer than rope, chokes hearts
dangling in the reality of struggle;
refuted victories mimic life
of children without mothers; widows veil
their grief, wailing in excruciating silence.

Fragments of men, void of hope,
count their dead; communal graves
swell with daily souls of the dust.

(Indeed, these...

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The sewing machine, long idle, gathered dust
Their farmland sapping every last ounce of energy
Animals and crops, entrusted and on her own to adjust
With welcome visits of encouragement from the clergy

All the men had enlisted swearing they’d be back
Leaving behind wives who hushed their worst fears
Nights...

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December 14th a cold evil wind was in Play…
From what had started to be a most beautiful day.
It struck at the heart of Newtown, Connecticut
Twenty children and seven adults were struck.

The families grieve as the horror unfolded.
A nation also grieves and mourns with all those...

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Most mornings
Most perfectly friendly mornings
Serene
Clean as breath of God
In each, I strive to revel
Refreshed
Poised for life's test.

Some mornings 
Some perfectly friendly mornings
Phantom of the dark
Steers me down
Tipping my scale of energy
Meddling with my glee
I must greet with joy each morning.

This roller coaster ride
I haven't climb
It...

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This was a cooking Sunday;
A mushroom tarragon
French cuisine Sunday;
Where the rapture of Julia Child
Days of cooking, cooking, cooking
Rose deep from every pore,
With the bliss of adding
Unmeasured ingredients
And delight in the territory
Of rarely explored spices.
Feeling, sensing the mind
Going into a place of creative joy,
A place of...

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Sunday
The Lord's day, celebrates the Eucharist
Day of the Resurrection
Christian family
Day of joy 
Rest from work
Foundation
Kernel, the whole liturgical year

04052014...

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Patience
by Rabindranath Tagore
loose translation/interpretation/modernization by Michael R. Burch

If you refuse to speak, I will fill my heart with your silence and endure it.
I will remain still and wait like the night through its starry vigil
with its head bent low in patience.

The morning will surely come,...

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