Friday, October 01, 2010

30 Poems for 30 Days - ATTEMPT 3!




Here's the thing. I've started this twice before. I've gotten to roughly 18-20 days in and then had life get in the way. This will not happen again. I will conquer this. I'm a busy person. Everyone's a busy person. I work 12-15 hour days. Well, sleep can suck it. Because I'm going to do this. And I'm starting on the first day of the month. That will make it easier to know where I am. Attempt 3. Start.

This started as a joke. I started this joke with Valerie and Annie and Ben a few years ago. The idea of generic obituaries. And then I started writing them on people's facebook pages. And then my friend Steven Hopkins pointed out that what I was writing was sort of beautiful. And then I realized. My humor and my poetry interweave so much. So I wrote this.

Generic Obituary for Anyone

When he was alive, it was apparent.
He knew the names of many things.
He reacted. He had emotions.
All his experience became memory.
There was enough air for him to breathe.
When he spoke he was acknowledged.
Sometimes he would sit and just be a person sitting.
Other times he was stirred by purpose.
There were people he called friend
and those he called stranger.
He called a place a home.
Sometimes he was alone, and sometimes the world
felt thick around him.
Wondering why some things worked the way they do,
he discovered a universe within him.
He left his fingerprints.
Some of you met him.
For many, he would exist like a pebble
on a beach you never heard of.
When he slept he had dreams
he never described to anyone.
These were wholly his own.
He has taken them with him.
He will be missed by a percentage of the world.

1 comment:

  1. My favorite part is "there was enough air for him to breathe". It's my favorite. Though, because you took so much from the one you wrote for Christian, I still see this as Christian's obituary.

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