We won't experience 100 years
of progress in the 21st century—
it will be more like 20,000 years of progress.
--Ray Kurzweil
I stand lost in reverie amidst the relics of death
from a bygone age, just as I always do.
With somber feet I follow the same trodden path
through the stone slab forest,
ever hoping to be met by the gleaming rays
of deliverance at the trails end.
But alas, all I find is the same noble oak tree
that my bereft hands planted so many years ago,
brooding sullenly over its two granite eggs.
Never do I find sunlight.
I sit beside my parent's headstone;
Through eyes wrung gray
by time's ephemeral perdition,
I stare into their ancient portraits.
Remember them.
Feel them.
Don’t just mull over their picture--
connect with their memory.
Picture their kindred spirits wrinkling
across each other's smiling faces.
Hear only their silenced voices when
trapped in the throes of nostalgia.
Embrace every rekindled emotion
the warmth of their presence breathes.
Please.
I want to remember them.
Let me feel them again...
Nothing.
I search for solace in every bronze letter
inscribed beneath my family's name and armorial.
The simple epitaph reads:
'Death is the golden key that opens the palace of Eternity'
Disdain sneers under my shuddering breath.
Time-forsaken memories weigh me down
like cumbersome stones fettered to my already heavy feet.
I sink further into their vacuity, deeper into why.
Get up.
You knew this was going to happen.
It's only going to get harder.
Just move on.
I kneel before my late wife's grave,
staring mindlessly at the ledger stone that bears her picture.
Sarah Carmine Davis.
Born on June 6th, 1988.
Died on the 22nd of September, 2017.
With eyes swollen full of tears,
I lay my sorrows in the bed of my trembling hands.
I cry for her.
I cry for the ribbon of hope emblazoned beside her name.
I cry for the empty plot alongside her
with my name already etched in stone.
I cry because I will never lie beside her.
I cry for the injustices time has committed against humanity.
I cry for heaven finding us after she had already found it.
Most of all,
I cry for her memory.
With each passing second it grows ever more evanescent,
just as my parents' did.
One day, just like any other,
her memory will have completely faded into forgotten,
and I won't even know it.
I won't even get a chance to say goodbye…
everlong as I choose this singularity.
Two-hundred years...
In the two-hundred years since you've been gone,
I've witnessed humanity transcend biology.
I've seen the death of Death.
Twenty-nine years…
It had been twenty-nine years since
your wan blue eyes last pierced my fraught soul,
since your soft-pedaling voice last sweetened my callow ears
with its candied whispers of breathless silence,
when nanotechnology invariably harmonized
man's foolhardy ego with its vitiated vessel.
Two-hundred years...
and I still love you.
I stand up.
As I walk into the golden horizon,
I'm reminded of the sanctity of life
by the silhouettes my wife and two
sons paint against the pastel mackerel sky...
Finally,
deliverance.
Author notes
A contest entry
- give me everything enriched with love and beauty by poetic-enigma21.
700 points, ended July 15, 21 entries
Honorable mention
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest - BRING ME YOUR PAST LIVES, BRING ME YOUR MEMORIES by Dixie Dawn.
700 points, ended July 27, 30 entries
Silver trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest - Prewrites. ♥ by GraveyardGoddess.
400 points, ends November 27, 423 entries
• next poem in this contest, • Add to finalists list, or remove from contest - Overcome the impossible. by bballer21.
625 points, ended November 25, 53 entries
• next poem in this contest, • Add to finalists list, or remove from contest - Write Me Another Life PW's ALLOWED by Intricate Wordsmith.
600 points, ended November 10, 61 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest - Looking For Favourites - Impress Me! by LavendeRFlameS.
2300 points, ended November 24, 90 entries
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• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
What did you think
Comments
1 - 18 of 18
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To be honest I have to say this was very captivating. Otherwise I would have found it too long for my taste. My favorite lines were " Don’t just mull over their picture- connect with their memory." This is quite good advice to anyone grieving a loved one lost. Thanks for entering
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this was really good, and i loved the theme.
thanks for entering (: -
great write! a lot of well thought out emotion
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i like that quote at the top even though it dont seem to true. technology has come pretty far this past century. I havent been alive the whole time to see it since Im only an 80's baby. Is this poem about loss? The way u say sitting beside your parents head stone, it makes me think how my mother passed away and we scattered her ashes under this big oak tree in our back yard. Funny how things connect like that. I really like this piece a lot though thank you for sharing I enjoyed reading it. I look forward to the day when I can see my mother again and hope that day is soon.
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Wow...
..... astoundingly deep write. I am glad I dropped in on this one. I having had my best friend pass away on 09-22-1997 can say without a shadow of a doubt that it is just an absolutly wonderful date for dying. That line made my world narrow as if you had planned the poem for my eyes only. Well done and splendid, you can tell time and thought went into this piece and it should be rewarded!
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Your poem is uniquely different and I must say EXCEPTIONALLY GOOD.Unfortunately it does not conform with my request "to please do not enter an entry that has been judged before.""
Should you have something that has not judged before I'll look forward to seeing it.
Please remove,
thank you. -
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oops! thanks though
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I like the story this poem tells. It's touching, it has a sense of emotion to it. It almost brought me to tears.
Thank you very much for your entry.
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Powerful indeed and a very unique idea to write a poem about. The way you laid the poem in this form just made it more touching, deeper and humanly. Loved the lines when you were trying to remember your parent's memories and fuss with them. Very touching indeed. Thanks for entering and good luck.
Love
~Noor -
This is very powerful, I really like how how you've laid it all out. The flow and style this was written. It is very heartfelt, definately deserving of all it's trophies
Thank you for entering
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Sad, heart-wrenching
a well thought out write.
this one is heading to the finalists list. -
I love this nice write, you've done very well
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i love this
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>_<
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wow.
this is stunning...im not sure what else to say.
thanks for entering,
good luck. -
a mind blowing poem and soo ingellently crafted and drawn together.Thank You for entering, and for expressing such sensentive emtional thoughts and good luck
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Oh, so sad. my favorite part:
"With eyes swollen full of tears,
I lay my sorrows in the bed
of my trembling hands"
great poem. thank u so much for entering. -
wooooo...superb ...
am speachless ... what an inspiration ...deep thoughts in there... ya well IT will and can make the world change ... liked the way you have taken it far... from the perspective of someone who has seen his family dying and is so helpless ...
very unique
thanks for sharing
cheers
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