Terms of Interment
I’d like to twine my limbs among
great roots beneath an oak,
eternally embracing there
—but not before I croak.
I want my grave within a grove
of alders, at the least,
so plant me deeply in the trees
—but wait ‘til I’m deceased.
Cheer up; it could Happen to You
The shrinking shrubbery betrays the end-of-season, last of days,
that comes—enfin!—to suck and drub the lushness out from every shrub,
to make it sere and small and sharp, and leafless, stringy as a harp;
to drag the desiccation on until all fruitful life is gone,
and while it’s shrinking, to remind me salad days are left behind me;
so I, too, will shrink and shrivel: I’ll dry up, as all who live’ll.
Roland Stone Gathers Moss
Roland was a rascal
Roland was a scamp
Roland gave his children
A trip to summer camp
The neighbors thought it generous
But never did they guess
He moved away and left the kids
No forwarding address
The kids were smarter than he thought
And found him anyhow;
They gave him a nice funeral, though:
The joke’s on Roland now.
Art-Colored Glasses 
Very humurous poetry involving death. Didn’t even know the two worked together. Wonderful, Kathryn!
If I can’t laugh about (or at) death, it wins, right? It’s probably a defense mechanism that I laugh at everything I can. 🙂
Are you having a bad day? Love the limbs and limbs though.. c
No, the *bad* day is when I can’t be silly about serious stuff. 😉 I’m glad you approve of my limbs, fellow tree-hugger!
What a fun set of poems today, Kathryn:) I love how we read “wait til I’m deceased” and we’re feeling sort-off grim (but not really) then your contradictory statement “Cheer up it could happen to you” hilarious!! I am always amazed that you can just “appear” with three stellar poems in a short period of time. I agonize over one teensy one… Hats off to you!! xo Smidge
Most of the time it takes me a couple tries to get a poem to ‘sit right’, so they’re not necessarily a speedy production. But since I did a project of over a year with fairly lengthy writing requirements daily and then got involved intermittently after that, I’ve literally thousands in various notebooks and stashes, so these three are all from past writings just recently revived and revised. ‘Rehearsal’, on the other hand, I wrote while R was rehearsing one of his choirs, and the sketch is from the same evening’s rehearsal. So some *are* slightly more spur of the moment. 🙂
xo! Kath
That first one reminds me of my dad! He used to tell us, “When I die, sharpen my head and drive me into the ground!” You are the mistress of the macabre, my dear Kathryn! ♥
Ooh, does that make me the Macabre Magpie??? 😉
You offered up a great little trilogy for us to enjoy today, Kathryn. As much as I relished all 3 — and, by the way, my confirmation name happens to be Roland — the absolute highpoint for me was your rhyming “live’ll” with “shrivel.” What can I say? It’s the little things that make me happy.
😀
I’m glad the efforts that I give’ll
please with their resultant drivel!
😀
Three delights for us today. My aunt used to say “Cheer up, it could hsappen to you” so maybe that’s a universal one.
I am glad I found you and will return often. thanks for the comment on my blog.
The version in our family was “Cheer up, things could be a lot worse–So I cheered up, and sure enough, things got worse.”
Thanks for being here, too, Judith! I look forward to following what you’re doing over at your place!
Beautiful poetry and photography!
🙂 Mandy
Thank you, Mandy, it’s very sweet of you to say so! 🙂
Brilliant – very Dorothy Parker today!
I should be so lucky! Thank you for bolstering my ego, though! 🙂
Love ’em all, but the first one is bringing George RR Martin’s latest to mind…no spoilers for any still “Dancing”, but it has to do with the roots of a weirwood, and seeing through the ‘eyes’ of the tree.
Yeah, I’m hopeless… 🙂
Roland gave me a good giggle.
Clearly I have some research to do!!!
Anyway, you’re my favorite kind of hopeless! 🙂
And I’m sure your kids never gave you the thought of moving away and leaving no forwarding address like any other parents I may know . . . 😉
We all *think* it…the Rotten Parents threaten their children with it.
Or we just offer to sell them to the first gypsy caravan that happens through the neighborhood… 😀
My favorite line amongst all three utterly amusing and clever poems was the same as John’s. Such a brilliant wordstress you are, Kathryn! Thank you for the smiles this morning!
I’m delighted that you enjoy the words I choose to stress, my dearest! Glad to make anyone smile at any time, most especially those who so often make *me* smile. 🙂 (See?!)
Just what I needed to cheer me up today. Thanks.
Pleased to turn up the corners of your smile when I can!
Oh we are droll and dry today!
Dry as the dusty grave, my dear!
Ha! ha! very good as usual.
I’m just trying to offer everyone plenty of hints for how to handle certain *delicate* situations.
Such wonderful rhymes and poems. I’m glad that you are not so deadly serious, but now that I think of it, I would prefer being deadly serious to being seriously dead.
Dead on comment, darling! Seriously!
Enjoyed your poetry so much… and the pictures too. A very good post!
Thank you, my friend!
Heads or tails, we’re all headed toward the same tail-end. And, yes, it’s not so serious after all…
If it were really so serious, how would we ever survive up *until* dying??
A 🙂 on all three. I’m giving you the “Most Inventive Rhyme Of The Year Award” for “so I, too, will shrink and shrivel: I’ll dry up, as all who live’ll.” 🙂
Thanks, Dennis. I’m pretty sure I have stolen most of my moves from greater minds (in this case, perhaps, some hybrid offspring of Ogden Nash, Dr. Seuss, and/or W.S. Gilbert), but then I guess everything’s been done before in one way or another and we all just ride the coattails of our teachers! Fortunately for me, these particular teachers have particularly fun coattails for the rambunctious rider. 🙂
Delightful and profound! Love these…darkness and light, not to give a fright, but a little insight!
And you got that exactly right! 🙂