Poems with Intertextual Links

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Whose Life is it Anyway?

By Brian Clark

An Alternate WorldRich Reith (1949 - )

Do you believe in alternate worlds,in other dimensions?I doI'm there I am a ghostwalking around unseenwatching others,not a part of their world,they, not a part of mine I was in their world once.I think I remember. Soccer gamesgoing to workshoppingnot thinking about tomorrow.All surreal nowso surreal.

Transported to a worldof people dressed in whiteof machinesand a million needles piercing methe needles seem to never stop.Days filled with medicineand more medicineDo I take this one now?God, I forget what I took.

 Transported to a world of days without sleepand days without waking.A world of painA world where you let themfill you with poisonsthen ask them to do it again. Everything that mattered before,doesn't. God, how I long to go to the mallcarefreelike these people walking around me,to worry about next summer's vacationas though next summer is assured.I long to be freeI long to be normalBut there is nothing normalin the world of cancer.

Source: http://www.blackcatpoems.com/r/an_alternate_world.html

Why Shrink from Death?

Agathias (c.536 – 582 AD)Tr. By W. Shepherd

Why shrink from death, the parent of repose,The cure of sickness and all human woes?As through the tribes of men he speeds his way,Once, and but once, his visit he will pay;Whilst pale diseases, harbingers of pain,Close on each other crowd, an endless train.

Source: http://www.blackcatpoems.com/a/why_shrink_from_death.html

Life is a Prison

Puff

Life is a prison,Oh God let me out.No one to listen,To hear when you shout.

Climb the walls of insanity,Ride the waves of despair.If you fall it don't matter,There's no one to care.

Used to wish for a window,To see birds, trees and sky,But you're better without one -Stops you aiming too high.

Watching freedom is painful,For those locked away.Seeing joy, love and happiness,Another price that you pay.

Strong is good, weak is bad.Be it false, be it true.Your mind makes the choice,And enforces it too.

Cell walls built by society,With rules to adhere.If you breach the acceptable,You had better beware.

Hide the pain, carry on,Routine is the key.Don't let on that you're not,What you're pretending to be.

Lock it all up inside you,How badly that bodes.Look out for that one day,When it all just explodes.

Leaving naught but a shell,Base functionality too.But killing all else,That was uniquely you.

So how do you grow,With a timebomb inside?Or how to defuse it,Without destroying its ride?

You can't.

Source: http://100-poems.com/poems/best/1428001.htm

To One Shortly to Die

Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892)

From all the rest I single out you, having a message for you,You are to die--let others tell you what they please, I cannot prevaricate,I am exact and merciless, but I love you--there is no escape for you.Softly I lay my right hand upon you, you 'ust feel it,I do not argue, I bend my head close and half envelop it,I sit quietly by, I remain faithful,I am more than nurse, more than parent or neighbor,I absolve you from all except yourself spiritual bodily, that iseternal, you yourself will surely escape,The corpse you will leave will be but excrementitious.The sun bursts through in unlooked-for directions,Strong thoughts fill you and confidence, you smile,You forget you are sick, as I forget you are sick,

You do not see the medicines, you do not mind the weeping friends,I am with you,I exclude others from you, there is nothing to be commiserated,I do not commiserate, I congratulate you.

Source: http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/wwhitman/bl-ww-toone.htm

Autumn LeavesBy Shashi Gupta

Like autumn leaves wasted awayI lie aroundNeither alive nor dead.

Death visited me long beforeMy body withered,Mercilessly strangling my soulFor having lived.

Source: http://www.boloji.com/poetry/4501-5000/4585.htm

The Road Not TakenRobert Frost (1874 – 1963)

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fairAnd having perhaps the better claim,Because it was grassy and wanted wear;Though as for that, the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads on to way,I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:two roads diverged in a wood, and I --I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.

Source: http://www.bartleby.com/119/1.html

The Sterling Dignity of Stellaby RD Ashby

The sterling dignity of Stella with herremains, though forty years of womanhood,the parties, love affairs, and all that glitterher beauty once attracted, are but wood, which the untidy brambles of her hairleap ghost-like over, and her bleary eyesappear not to have known; or else despairof ever having known one would surmise.

A double amputee she sits alone,completely self-contained; and some would say content, to watch her knit a blanket square.What silence must now consummate her day:as when the child, the woman, she had knownthe place, the time, the same: the being there.

Source: http://www.boloji.com/poetry/3801-3900/3900.htm

Songby: Christina Rossetti

When I am dead, my dearest,Sing no sad songs for me;Plant thou no roses at my head,Nor shady cypress tree:Be the green grass above meWith showers and dewdrops wet;And if thou wilt, remember,And if thou wilt, forget.

I shall not see the shadows,I shall not feel the rain;I shall not hear the nightingaleSing on, as if in pain;And dreaming through the twilightThat doth not rise nor set,Haply I may remember,And haply may forget.

Source: http://www.shortpoems.org/poems/funerals.html

The Beauty of Death

By Kahlil Gibran

 Part One - The Calling

Let me sleep, for my soul is intoxicated with love andLet me rest, for my spirit has had its bounty of days and nights;Light the candles and burn the incense around my bed, andScatter leaves of jasmine and roses over my body;Embalm my hair with frankincense and sprinkle my feet with perfume,And read what the hand of Death has written on my forehead.

Let me rest in the arms of Slumber, for my open eyes are tired;Let the silver-stringed lyre quiver and soothe my spirit;Weave from the harp and lute a veil around my withering heart.

Sing of the past as you behold the dawn of hope in my eyes, forIt's magic meaning is a soft bed upon which my heart rests.

Dry your tears, my friends, and raise your heads as the flowersRaise their crowns to greet the dawn.Look at the bride of Death standing like a column of lightBetween my bed and the infinite;Hold your breath and listen with me to the beckoning rustle ofHer white wings.

Come close and bid me farewell; touch my eyes with smiling lips.Let the children grasp my hands with soft and rosy fingers;Let the ages place their veined hands upon my head and bless me;Let the virgins come close and see the shadow of God in my eyes,And hear the echo of His will racing with my breath.

Source: http://www.poetseers.org/the_great_poets/ar/gibran_poems/the_beauty_of_death/

Death, Inevitable Death

Mark Slaughter

Death, inevitable Death.So now you've come! Show your world! Ah, your blackened cloak, unfurled. And peering down upon my form - Bereft of heart - your eyes of storm.

Death, inexorable Death.‘When? ’ The only question out of Thee.My dream retorts 'Never for me! ’Now awake, I welcome you so -Relenting, repenting, with nowhere to go.

Death, adamant Death.You cast your spell and guide me 'way, For life and I have had our day.What's of me? I prey you, tell! Glorious in Heaven or gnarled in Hell?

Death, ineluctable Death.Oh wiry ghoul, I'm here to follow - I leave my body grey and shallow. ‘Come! ’ you bid in thundering tones, ‘Say farewell to shattered bones.’

Source: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/death-inevitable-death/