Multicultural Death

[Delta40]

Death be an act of God
do not question it.
Paint a totem.
Cry as loud as you can
that it might cleanse your soul.
Dress in black
Talk of Sorry business.
Cook no food and fast in grief
Create a shrine around a banquet.
Keep a candle or lamp burning
in the memory of the deceased.
Shake smoking leaves across the body.
Dwell with family for as long
as it took God to create the Earth
Internalize your grief.
Bow to others and utter:
May you be alive and May God's blessings
be on the dead."
Call on previous ancestors to transport
the dead into the afterlife.
Anoint the deceased.
wash and bathe in sacred ritual.
Say Hail Mary.
Inter them in a tree or cave.
Be subdued.
Drown in multiple souls
Call upon Dreaming ancestors
Wear purple to the funeral
Stand at the grave
Smoke a tribal pipe.
Celebrate hard with a strong drink.
Sprinkle their casket with holy water.
Recite the Kaddish twice a day
for the next month.
View the body before cremation.
Don't attend on the Sabbath.
Let a Medicine Man lead the way.
dress the dead in winter clothes
put a cooked chicken in the casket
Turn off the radio and televison for forty days
pray with rosary for nine days.
Revel in the Home-going Service

[Delta40]

Bump!

[Scheherazade]

Hi Delta,

When I first read this poem last night, I got stuck at the first line, wondering why it was "Death be an act of God" (I don't think it is an imperative form there?) and today, again, I get stuck there: Why not "is"?

Over all, I like how you are encouraging your reader to take death for what it is, regardless of the ceremonies and traditions involved following it... Do they make a difference? I don't know.

[Delta40]

I used 'be' in the context that death is deemed or ordained by God. I felt it gave the statement more finality rather than using 'is' which has less force.

[tailor STATELY]

Bumped it is. Easier to find.

Enjoyed your poem. Death is an interesting study. I'll write further in a thread of my own.

Sincerely,
tailor STATELY

[PrinceMyshkin]

Glad you bumped it as I missed it when originally posted but nowI don't know what to say about it. My instinct is to assume it was provoked by the recent death of someone close to you but nothing (as far as I noticed) comes out from behind the ritualistic screen.

My own personal acquaintance with it began with the death, at age 37, of my younger brother, some 29 years ago; there was an element of mystery around the cause or circumstance of it and perhaps because I never looked in to the open coffin, his death is still unacceptable and unreal to me.

[Delta40]

I was just floating through different approaches and responses to death, actually.

[YesNo]

The idea to "put a cooked chicken in the casket" was interesting.

I remember when my father died and his casket was carried to the cemetery, the crypt was also there in which the casket would be placed. Somewhere I read how many years it was guaranteed to be before water would get through the crypt and start decomposing the casket.

Something seemed wrong about him waiting that long to get a drink of water.

[Scheherazade]

I used 'be' in the context that death is deemed or ordained by God. I felt it gave the statement more finality rather than using 'is' which has less force.It also reminds me of Donne's "Death Be Not Proud", which is one of my favorite poems, and wonder if your choice had something to do with it.

:)

[Delta40]

It also reminds me of Donne's "Death Be Not Proud", which is one of my favorite poems, and wonder if your choice had something to do with it.

:)

I just read it for the first time then! How I wish I could write like that.

[PrinceMyshkin]

I was just floating through different approaches and responses to death, actually.

But, to me, the interestingly missing thing was what started you at this particular time "floating through" as you say. Death is about as personal a thing as we can experience - or anticipate experiencing, but I missed how Delta had experienced or anticipated experiencing it.

By contrast with Scher's "Death be not proud" I thought of D. Thomas' "Do not go gentle into that good night" and Paul Celan's "Fugue of Death".

[Delta40]

But, to me, the interestingly missing thing was what started you at this particular time "floating through" as you say. Death is about as personal a thing as we can experience - or anticipate experiencing, but I missed how Delta had experienced or anticipated experiencing it.

By contrast with Scher's "Death be not proud" I thought of D. Thomas' "Do not go gentle into that good night" and Paul Celan's "Fugue of Death".

Wow! both those poems are amazing. I recently completed my play whose main character is a demented old woman in a nursing home. I suppose really, my thoughts have centred on mortality as I toyed with the ending.