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Brent Kincaid Feb 2018
I’m sliding down the ladder of life
Doing the Jacob thing in reverse.
Most of the people I meet now
Are either medical doctors or a nurse.
I’m in that phase where my hearing
Is about as good as my vision.
I don’t walk all that well at all
Due to my aging condition.

That’s the way things sometimes go
You might be clueless or you might know.
There may be signs so you can guess
Or you may find yourself a total mess.

Looking back over who I have been,
Like most of the young, I didn’t forsee
Or take much to heart the chances
That things like this would happen to me.
I thought myself invulnerable and
Incapable of ever growing old
Callously heeding no elders’s words
I simply refused to be told.

I thought the warnings I heard
Were from some clueless wags
And burned candles at both ends
Until the wick began to sag.

Now the creamy sooth skin,
Or what version I once ever had,
Begins to betray with brown spots,
And I admit it once made me mad.
But I have managed to accept
Many of the shortcomings of tomorrow.
It’s the loss of mobility I dislike;
That delivers me so much sorrow.
Bee Feb 2018
Down the stairs, my hands a shield
for incoming priority mail,
and trained for the way your body would
hug me closer with every exhale.

Your mother won’t stop calling.
Kind of like the week we spent hopeful
before they sent you away.
Kind of like me just trying to hear your voice,
always searching for something that’s calming.

The windows have
been open since yesterday,
and I heard the bird sing to its sky,
“I love you”
before it started to rain,
darkness swallowed up the sun’s sky
and wilted all our daisy-chains.

Rescued frames surround me,
reserved to tell your stories.
The breeze never fails me,
it carries your scent in flurries.
If I try hard enough, I could feel it

through my hair, and on my lips.
Every night the breeze
brings with it a solar eclipse
that soaks through my skin,
and intertwines with my blood cells,
going straight to the bones that
keep my body from further farewells.

Tomorrow I will build a home with
the words of your silent prayer.
My cracked walls will be painted with
your skin and the scent of your hair.
My new bed will be made with
old t-shirts you always used to wear.

If I could fit your eulogy on this page
I’d make sure to mention the breeze that whirls
through the center of my chest,
and my lungs that faithfully breath the air
that may have once circled your ribcage.
Sally Thomas Feb 2018
In the sea of black
Amongst the wash of tears and the hands held tightly
The memories
Shared by a stranger in a pulpit
Prayers joined in for the occasion
A curious celebration of life
Your best bits
Like Match of the Day highlights.
Evading the times you cried
The times you didn't want anyone around.
Yet here they are - how would you feel?

Outside, the awkward embraces
Of long lost acquaintances
Awkwardly reacquainting
Amongst the tombstones, cursed forever to
Hear the condolences
See the sorrow of strangers
Feel the emptiness.

The hit of grief on the journey home.
Hot tears coursing their path onto the steering wheel.
The relentless regret
Of unspoken truths, lies, compliments and apologies.
But the unfailing, niggling persistence rather to have loved and lost.
And been a few crossed off calendar days.
A passing thought when hearing a song.
A flickering vision through whiskey-blurred eyes.
A small piece of the jigsaw.
I wrote this poem after attending the funeral of my childhood sweetheart. I hate funerals (not sure anyone really likes them).   I hate the surge of grief that hits you and how no-one knows the right thing to say.  This funeral was particularly hard. I'm getting to that age where friends are passing away and it makes me ever grateful for each day and all its prospects and blessings.
Sally Thomas Feb 2018
Carry the torch high
Even in the darkest night
Let your flame burn bright.
 
Have courage in your heart
Step out from the shade
Be bold and unafraid.

Rise to the challenge
Climb the mountain run the race
Do it at your own pace.

Cheer loudly from the sidelines
Help others out
With an encouraging shout.

Don't fight your own fate
Accept how things are
And you'll always go far.

Follow your dreams
Make it happen, reach your goal
Find peace in your soul.

Live life to the full
Be happy, be kind
And your star will always shine.
A poem I was commissioned to write to celebrate the life of the amazing Julie Darwin, my sister's sister-in-law. Despite being paralysed at 15 and diagnosed with lung disease at 32, she lived life to the full, raising thousands of pounds for those less fortunate than herself.

The poem uses keywords and ideas from the messages of remembrance posted on Facebook by friends and family.
A love won,
A battle lost,
A cost too dear,
Here I stand in my worst fear,
Here I am.

****,

What now,
So loud,
The thoughts,
The self screams.

Mother,
So dear,
I understand,
I know how you feel,
Take yourself into God's Kingdom,
And be free.

I love you Mom,
Goodbye.

~Robert van Lingen
NKOANA Dec 2017
Kind words for the unkind.
Same, as sun shines for those in the dark.
Just, only just for the unjust.
Kind words, uttered for the unkind,
No, it's not right and could possibly be mistaken for lies but I guess it's only kind.
Written by : NKOANA PHOSHOKO
Braxton Reid Nov 2017
I mourned my childhood; that daydreamin' boy of the past walking in the woods with friends.
Sweet child that knew no bounds.
This laughing kid with his head in the clouds.
**** the dreams that flew away; given my chance, in that past I would stay.
A eulogy for the electric being I once was; no current was ever strong enough to hold forever.
Dedicated to the victims of Grenfell Tower*

She stands amid the buzz of metal flies:
This obelisk, memento of the dead.
The sirens crudely mimicking their cries
As pilgrims in their guilt leave much unsaid.

A once sweet hive is now an empty husk,
Her armour was to be her Achilles' heel,
And as the cold grey sky fades into dusk;
I speak not what I ought, but what I feel:

Instead of words there comes a cry of pain -
A strangled howl and heavy sobs of guilt.
What can be said when words are all in vain -
Like rain, on this gazebo that we built?

While politicians bluster “Nevermore”,
We will remember them forevermore.
Mary Frances Oct 2017
The eulogy of you and me,
The ode for all the love and misery,
The ballad of the promises whispered carelessly,
Will all be written in this broken Poetry.
Wouter Oct 2017
I lament the days to come

they’re empty and look

so useless without



your words they moved

my view of things and

anointed the way



I look towards life

and living in a broad

perspective it’s seems



in vain, so now all

that’s left are forgotten

words memories of



brightness and a

sun that fades into

an ocean of emptiness



no flowers please

acquisitions are not

appreciated
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