Poems of Death and Rebirth 2025

By Wy’East Sangha members

“New Year’s Day -
everything’s in blossom!
I feel about average.””
— Kobayashi Issa, 1819
“It was a really bad day but also a good day. I handed him over into the Wild Blue Yonder. But it wasn’t me. So this is death.”
— Trish Carroll
“Who was I?
Tell me your story.
Mine is past.”
— Dixie Conley
“All my life I’ve put words between us.
Now we can really get to know each other!”
— Emilie Teiko Cartoun
“‘It was so simple, how can it be personal?’, my dog asked.”
— Muji Crighton
“Kookaburras calling, laugh
Waking the neighbourhood after dawn
Welcome a New Year to history
After a pride in old acquaintance
Was celebrated and goes
Happy hearts slumber in their own time”
— Peter DeGraaff
“Laughter together.
Night falls.
The mystery revealed.”
— Lexy Dillon
“A purring cat
knows the Way
content
and present”
— Shintai Dungay
“Waiting for daylight,
open to whatever comes,
hidnig’s not an option
breath flows easily,
each moment matters
trusting awareness.”
— Ruth Ann Homen
“I walk the soft sand.
Waves of time wash marks away,
Surf’s roar erases.”
— Bob Kempter
“Tears of grief unshed.
Tears of joy.”
— Bruce Shokai Ryan
“Leading a life of adventure,
the closer I came to death
the more alive I feel.”
— Rick Wheeler