For the dverse prompt.
death is not
when the leaf is torn
from the tree
but long before
when the sap recedes
and life ebbs—
kelp on the high tide line
waiting patiently for the flood
Exhaling
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For the dverse prompt.
death is not
when the leaf is torn
from the tree
but long before
when the sap recedes
and life ebbs—
kelp on the high tide line
waiting patiently for the flood
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Jane Dougherty Writes 
I like your description of death as a fading out or hanging on: so often that’s the way and I’m not sure if that makes it easier or harder.
I don’t either. I swift blow on the head might be the best way, but most of us get the lingering exit.
Nature and it’s circles 💜💜
We’re in one like it or not 🙂
Yes indeed 💜
🙂
Lovely piece Jane – the autumn leaf and the kelp long torn from it’s base. So what is the flood or the strong breeze but a sweeping away.
Just tidying up, I guess. Thanks, Peter 🙂
The leaving usually takes much longer than the arriving. I already feel like ‘kelp on the high tide line’ and hope for a quick exit in my sleep.
That’s true! Like you, I want a quick, unconscious leaving, not to be in the position of hanging on by my fingernails to something that isn’t life at all.
Death does seep in and linger. It is always there, whether we acknowledge it or not. (K)
It seems as though it’s not enough for us to believe that we’re passing on the baton, that we’ve had our time and have paved the way for another generation, we want to believe that we go on and on forever.
I wouldn’t mind just a long unbroken sleep myself.
Sounds good. As long as I can dream.
I like especially the visuals and the tone of the kelp at the tide line.
Thank you. It’s all part of cycle, but nobody can guarantee that we’ll be aware of what becomes of us as the wheel turns beyond our death.
Living up here in the Land Of Changeable Foliage for as long as I have, I can always mark (ie “sense’) the day the sap stops running; the beginning of the (temporary) end. Great write, JD.
PS: Loved the kelp-on-shore analogy, too!
Thanks! There are worse ways to end up 🙂
Thanks, Ron. We human beings have a problem with being part of anything ‘temporary’.
Well done, Jane. Too often, death will linger, meaning more time with a loved one, but painful for all.
I can imagine how awful it must be to watch a loved one barely hanging on, possibly in pain and just wishing for them to let go and die. I’ve only experienced it with a cat and that was distressing enough.
I did, indeed, exhale at the end of this poem. wow.
I’m pleased you liked it 🙂
Most definitely Jean, life is often gone long before the body has been discarded. Important to live life fully every day.
It’s a terrible thing to say, but some people may just as well be dead.
You make a good point that life and death have fuzzy boundaries, as we are continually in a refreshing and discarding cycle of existence.
Yes, and as you say, human beings have that special place of not quite alive, not quite dead that no other animal has.
Yes, and some deaths occur long before the breathing stops and the blood quits pumping. Very well done Jane.
Sometimes years before, you’re right! Thank you, Dwight 🙂
You are welcome Jane.
Dying can be such a slow process for some.
It can, and there’s the mental death too. For some that starts before any physical decay.
Yes, so true Jane.
😦
Indeed, and just like the leaf many of us will leave in little steps before we fall.
As long as it’s not too long and drawn out.
I thought I had commented on this, but I guess I didn’t.
This is so sad and true. Watching my mom fade away was so sad.
Sometimes it takes longer than it ought and we find ourselves in the position of wishing it would end. That must be so terrible to live with.
Yes. I imagine that happens all too often.
😦
Particularly poignant at the moment, when so many families are banned from visiting their ailing loved ones in care homes and must instead watch through the windows as they slowly waste away.
I know. I don’t understand why, in the sense that if someone is at that stage of their life, preserving them from the virus just so they can pine away makes no sense.