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October 2009 
another love.
Posted on Sep 11th, 2008
by 
Siona
Siona
I have fallen, recently, deeply in love with an ancient and odd literary form--the 'death poem,' or the 'Parting of Life Verses.' This one, by a woman named, Oroku, is from early in the seventeenth century.
And had my days been longer
still the darkness
would not leave this world--
along death's path, among the hills
I shall behold the moon.
I wanted to leave a reflection on this--on the sweet and painful brilliance of this particular poem, on the extraordinary beauty and solemnity of the practice itself, of the gift to the world that these 'parting verses' entail, on the purity of a poetic form that can only be attempted once in a lifetime--but any such wonderings or adulations feel clumsy. So perhaps instead I'll just sit and hold those five lines instead, and perhaps, perhaps, you can do the same.
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