Charmed Chaos

I’ve been thinking of death a lot, and I am amazed by its inevitability, frightened, as we all are, of the totally unknown, and yet feel a long sleep is somehow earned by those of us who live on the edge.- Jackson Pollock

I’ve been thinking of death a lot and I am amazed by its inevitability.

There are those who try to run from death, but in the end, there is no escape.

There is no sanctuary from death; no respite, no silk cocoon you can wrap yourself in to avoid it.

Death is life and life is death and therein lies the metamorphoses

for both change and death are unavoidable.

Should one fear death if it is inevitable, or push the fear of dying aside?

And in thinking of death, do we speed up our soul’s path to death?

Or does thinking of death make us more grateful for the time we have

but yet always looking over our shoulder, expecting death to arrive

into this precious life we have before death comes whispering our name.

How will death come; fragrant as a dozen red roses tied in a silk ribbon?

Or will death slither in on the belly of a snake waiting for the right moment to strike?

Will death wrap itself around you, choking your breath from you?

Death is the cold cup of coffee you never finish as you write your last words.

©2021 Linda Lee Lyberg

Author’s Note: I came across this obscure poetry form on another poet’s site, Paul’s Poetry Playground and decided to give it a try. Essentially it is a poetry form invented by poet and art critic John Yau to pay tribute to the American abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock. It is a fourteen-line poem with the rather unusual requirement that the first line must be a quotation by the artist. The remaining thirteen lines consist strictly of words from Pollock’s quote, the idea being to splatter words repeatedly on the page like he famously did with paint on his canvases. But, you are also free to change the ‘rules’ as needed, much like Pollock did with his art. I most definitely colored outside the lines with my words!

Poets United Midweek Motif: Safety

dVerse OLN #248