Death Songs

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

Death Songs

 

The Lakota, Cheyenne and Navajo

All sing their songs of death

At the hour of the reckoning

To welcome eternal rest

 

Big Foot sang at Wounded Knee

Frozen on the barren land

Black Kettle sang at Sand Creek

Where he made his final stand

 

As the sun sets on our varied lives

We seek a vision that will please

As basic as the call to prayer

That bends us to our knees

 

Dickinson sang her song of death

Praising nature and painting dreams

Freud sang his song of death

Its final notes neither heard nor seen

Mozart sang his requiem

Until it placed him in his grave

All the earthly saints sang prayers

One last soul to save

Whitman at the appointed hour

Sang of self and lovely flowers

Yeats sang of lovers lost

A lament of such a woeful cost

 

We sing our songs of soulful sorrow

Uncertain what will be tomorrow

But on the hour of our last day

We yield to bow our heads and pray

We sing of things we might have done

Battles lost and battles won

We dive into the deep unknown

Not knowing whether we have grown

Enough to make it right

We sing so long, farewell, goodnight