The Elegy and/or Prompts for Death and Grief

Today we discussed the elegy. An elegy is a poem that is sad and thoughtful, and often said in lament of a person who has died.

If you don't feel like going there, you can always write about the loss of something lighter. For example, I could easily lament about the loss of coffee... or doughnuts on Fridays...

Here are some ideas:

1. Write about the first experience with death/loss that you can remember, whether it involved a person or an animal (or coffee...) Then write about your most recent experience with death/loss. Combine the two in a poem.

2. Write a poem in which you speak after your own death. Imagine what death looks and feels like, what your emotions are. What advice can you give to the living?

3. Write a letter to someone who is dead. In it, make a confession.

4. In "Death, the Last Visit," Howe used the metaphor of a lover. Invent your own metaphor for death, and write a poem about what dying might feel like.
http://properlylost.blogspot.com/2008/07/death-last-visit-by-marie-howe.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7RiCb8Kidg

5. Who are your dead? Have them meet in a poem, even if they never met in life, and describe how they interact.

6. Read the newspaper and, when you find an account of a stranger's death that moves you, write an elegy for that person. Find a way that your life and that person's death are related, and talk about it in the poem.

7. Write a first-person poem in the voice of a public figure who is dead.

8. What can the dead do: go through walls, see the future, move objects? What are their powers and limitations? What are their desires, fears, pleasures? Describe them in a poem. See Susan Mitchell's "The Dead".  http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/140.html

9. If you own some object that used to belong to someone who is no longer alive, describe it in detail, along with your memories imaginings about how that person used it. You might also talk about how it is used in the present.

10. Write a poem about a ritual that accompanies death. It might be about a traditional funeral, a wake, or some more private or individual observance. If you find an occasion for joy or beauty in the midst of mourning, include it. (Do this last part only if it feels true to your experience.)