Loss Poems | Poemist

Popular Loss Poems

I Will Beguile Him With The Tongue

by Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi

Reason says, “ I will beguile him with the tongue.”; Love says,
“Be silent. I will beguile him with the soul.”
The soul says to the heart, “Go, do not laugh at me and yourself.
What is there that is not his, that I may beguile him
thereby?”
He is not sorrowful and anxious and seeking oblivion that I
may beguile him with wine and a heavy measure.
The arrow of his glance needs not a bow that I should beguile
the shaft of his gaze with a bow.
He is not prisoner of the world, fettered to this world of earth,

......

The Blind Boy

by Colley Cibber

O SAY what is that thing call’d Light,
Which I must ne’er enjoy;
What are the blessings of the sight,
O tell your poor blind boy!

You talk of wondrous things you see,
You say the sun shines bright;
I feel him warm, but how can he
Or make it day or night?

......

Disciples

by Steve Turner

They threw down their nets
and they followed Him.
There was no time to
calculate profit or loss.
There was no time to
call home for a second opinion.
It seemed like absolute madness.
It seemed like death.
But it was a wise madness,
a necessary death.

......

If

by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream- -and not make dreams your master;

......

On The Death Of Dr. Benjamin Franklin

by Philip Freneau

Thus, some tall tree that long hath stood
The glory of its native wood,
By storms destroyed, or length of years,
Demands the tribute of our tears.

The pile, that took long time to raise,
To dust returns by slow decays:
But, when its destined years are o'er,
We must regret the loss the more.

......

Recent Loss Poems

Anatomy of a Pyre

by Lokenath Roy

tugging down hair strands,
right where the foot of the flame breaks even—

outreaching from a coarsen rug; in little time
cheeks crater out. engulfing the blessed cry of departure.

have you watched the fire spread on a pyre? the last time the muscles
twitch.
human skin of pastel gorges beneath the river, yellow.
the danube devotes praises to the blue skies of distant dawn.

......

Lunatics

by Lokenath Roy

albeit- you have deceived me
while- the candles at the end of the hall burn on black fumes; rising
notwithstanding- the graveyard which no one shall weep for
howbeit- a leg steps forward; an empire turns the screw
inside- a mind brimming with colours
closets- filled with crockeries wrapped in black glitter
jacket collars- washed off blood stains; it begins.
timed- the bedside receiver rings
gongs- like a distant radio rambling in an empty house
signed- with the guarantee of lying lips

......

Father

by John Hughes

All my life I wanted a dad, a cool dad
Someone who would fight for me like I would fight for him
But I don’t think I ever found that
I found someone broken yet living just teetering off into outer space
Still believing in the lord
But the lord not showing any mercy on his soul

Ashes

by John Hughes

I’m thinking about burning down this house with you and I still in it to see if our ashes will love each other, because baby, we never did.

Another Doctor, Another Revolving Door

by Darris van-Hoxen

What’s the point
if I told you a you
was elsewhere—
not quite you,
not quite I,
just remnants
of someone else.

And with another brain—
not my own—

......