Tag Archives: death

Brotherly Love – House of the Dragon

(Poem 183 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)

The sacrificial lamb
for one man’s guilt
results in the death of
one soul split in two.

One name in twain,
bifurcated broken hearts
bent on split loyalties
divided by ideologies.

A dancing duet of
swords and pain,
a dyad in tandem
with lives of service.

This brotherly love
can only end in grief,
for the end of one
means the end of both.

@Home Studio – 183rd poem of the year (Spoiler Alert: after watching House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 2; Erryk and Arryk.)

Condal, Ryan and George R. R. Martin, creators. House of the Dragon. HBO Entertainment and Warner Bros., 2024.

Runner ups for the Brotherly Love photos to accompany my poem:

Grieving Mother – House of the Dragon

(Poem 180 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)

AI Generated image I prompted on Gencraft.com https://gencraft.ai/p/3PTiet  https://gencraft.ai/p/rcoJcL

The mother does what
any mother must do after
receiving the worst news
imaginable; she mounts
her dragon and flies as far
as she must for confirmation
with her own eyes that her
son has been taken from
this world in a vicious attack.
She must reckon with the
knowledge that all could
have been prevented by
her every step of the way,
so she has herself to blame
for her baby ending up in the
belly of the enemy’s beast.
A son for a son will become
the battle cry that brings
only blood to the realm.
Winter is truly coming.

@Home Studio – 180th poem of the year (after watching Season 2, Episode 1 of House of the Dragon)

Condal, Ryan and George R. R. Martin, creators. House of the Dragon. HBO Entertainment and Warner Bros., 2024.

Runner ups for the Grieving Mother photos to accompany my poem:

Ghost Whisperer

(Poem 176 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)

AI Generated image I prompted on Gencraft.com https://gencraft.ai/p/KxTmAS

Beyond the veil of the living
is the plain of the between,
where people linger after death
unable to be seen.

Only those who can’t let go
reside in this murky space,
but each lost soul has a story to tell
if someone can show them grace.

A Ghost Whisperer is sometimes summoned,
a spirit’s only hope,
communing with the voiceless ones
to help the living cope.

For usually, those who remain
feel burdened by an unexplained weight.
No sense can be made of their grief
or their loved ones’ undetermined fate.

If a satisfactory resolution
can be settled upon at last,
the ghost will finally release their hold
and accept that they have passed.

@Home Studio – 176th poem of the year (Inspired by the television show The Ghost Whisperer.)

Hewitt, Jennifer Love, Ghost Whisperer, Sander/Moses, CBS, 2005-2010.

Runner ups for the Ghost Whisperer photos to accompany my poem:

Lesson 14 The Way of the Wizard

(Poem 93 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)

AI Generated image I prompted on Gencraft.com https://gencraft.ai/p/UQREqT

Pain is not truth;
it is simply what we must endure to find truth.
This body we are experiencing is an embroidered flower,
merely representative,
beautiful,
but artificial,
not the full living embodiment of the flower.
Thoughts are guests checking in and out of our quaint inn,
just as this form is temporary,
a visitor who will travel on.
We take death so personally,
spend a lifetime preventing loss,
projecting fear from our own ignorance,
denying our own place in the circle.
It is only possible to lose what is not real.
Even if we think we’ve lost everything,
what remains is what is real.

@Home Studio – 93rd poem of the year

Chopra, Deepak. The Way of the Wizard: Twenty Spiritual Lessons for Creating the Life You Want. New York, United States of America, Harmony Books, 1995, pp. 96-101.

Runner ups for the circle of life photos to accompany my poem:

Lonely Boat

(Poem 84 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)

AI Generated image I prompted on Gencraft.com https://gencraft.ai/p/2ecDkl

Is there anything lonelier
than an empty boat
in the middle of the sea?

It has lost its mate
to the wind and the waves,
who never more shall be.

No, nothing is lonelier
than an empty boat
in the middle of the sea.

Except, perhaps,
this empty room
without you and only me.

@Home Studio – 84th poem of the year

The Tree that Holds up the Moon

(Poem 77 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)

AI Generated image I prompted on Gencraft.com https://gencraft.ai/p/a1SThn

The tree that holds up the moon
had to be reinforced last month.
A branch broke and the light of night
nearly came tumbling down to earth.
We wept and prayed, wished we
had thought of something sooner.
Then the women gathered their
tools and began the tedious work
of stitching the bark strong where
the wound remained from the
gaping hole the bough left when
she fell away and broke our hearts.  

@Home Studio – 77th poem of the year

Runner ups for the tree moon photos to accompany my poem:

Cheetah and Dahlia

(Poem 74 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)

AI Generated image I prompted on Gencraft.com https://gencraft.ai/p/FJuDC4

The epic battle between
cheetah and dahlia
lasted more than two moons.
No one knew who fate would
favor, though all took sides.
Spider and owl both fought
valiantly on the side of dahlia.
Scorpion and crow stood with
cheetah, as they do to this day.
Allegiances were forged,
lifelong friendships shattered;
the forest was never the same.
Some say dahlia attacked first,
jealous that cheetah was not
faithful, others say cheetah
was the original aggressor,
retaliation for a lost cub.
Whoever initiated matters not,
for the havoc and destruction
was total, the bloodshed dire.
Had serpent and beetle not
teamed up, all would have
been lost in the bloody mire.
As cheetah lay dying from
serpent’s bite, dahlia fell,
devastated by beetle’s hunger.
And to this day, there is
animosity among the animals,
where once there was union.
Such are the ways of love
and war; there are no victors.  

@Home Studio – 74th poem of the year

Runner ups for the cheetah flower photos to accompany my poem:

Westside

(Poem 59 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)

Amblin Entertainment, TSG Entertainment https://images.app.goo.gl/eA9j3QVXtgfPyrhx9

Seething anger
must be aimed
at an enemy,
or else.
If there is no
target, they risk
ricochet; with no
one else to hurt,
they have to feel
all the pain.

@Home Studio – 59th poem of the year (after watching the 2021 version of Westside Story with Debbie, Yulia, and Celinda)

Spielberg, Steven. Westside Story. Amblin Entertainment, TSG Entertainment, Dec. 10, 2021.

More Westside Story images:

Grief is Hard

(Poem 58 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)

“This is hard,” you say,
and point to her portrait,
no more words required.
Tears begin to flow;
you don’t want to cry
and say so.

I tell you no one knows
what you are feeling.
None of us have had a
best friend for 70 years
and had to feel the pain
of losing her.

Then I escape to my
room to weep into
my husband’s arms,
crying even harder
because she can’t
hold you.

@Home Studio – 58th poem of the year