LIFE GOES ON (#2) & IN THE END (mixed format dream poem) by Roswila)

IN THE END

the six adults leave
the conference room their breaths
smelling of almonds
their suicide pact fully
acknowledged and enacted

this is better than
the long drawn-out deaths they’d
otherwise suffer
they start sharing memories
from their soon to end lives

the first one talks of
his life-long employment:
acting like a child
his small stature allowing
him to entertain endlessly

others speak -- the past more alive than they

the final adult
shares not a memory but
what he’d always wished:
at the last to dive into
a wild jungle river,

an adventurer to the end by an alligator’s bite
but now he sees that ‘gators wear many guises


[A re-post, including the following comments: “Three tanka, a monoku, a tanka, and a capping two-liner on a dream of 3-21-13. Just in case I haven’t made the underlying point (at least the most important one for me) to this dream clear, it’s not about suicide. It’s about not really living while we’re alive; that there are many forms of death, not just of the body. Staying stuck in the past is the ‘death’ being highlighted in the dream. The last tanka and capping two-liner put me in mind of that Shakespeare quote: ‘Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.’ Of course, there’s also Hemingway’s response to that idea: ‘The brave dies perhaps two thousand deaths if he's intelligent. He simply doesn't mention them.’ ” Photo: “Life Goes On” (screenshots 5-11-19[3], a version I re-edited a bit this morning, of my pic that appeared originally with this poem, by Roswila)

PLEASE NOTE: in most browsers you can click on the above image for a larger version. Also, the photo accompanying a post is not necessarily meant to illustrate it, but to reflect some small, even slant aspect of the verse, similar to Japanese haiga (illustrated haiku).

There are many other sorts of posts on this blog. I indicate which are about or influenced by dreams. Some non dream focused posts are book reviews, "regular" poems (some by other writers), scifaiku, writing exercises, Tarot haiku, photos, haiga, and so on. However, most of those are in much older posts. There's a listing by month going back to early 2006, at the end of the sidebar.

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until next time, keep dreaming,





[a/k/a Patricia Kelly]
**** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”). Roswila's other blog (dedicated to her photos only, i.e. no poetry or other writing; daily post); TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.