To the Young Who Want to Die

[i-hunger.livejournal.com]

To the Young Who Want to Die:
Gwendolyn Brooks

Sit down. Inhale. Exhale.
The gun will wait. The lake will wait.
The tall gall in the small seductive vial
will wait will wait:
will wait a week: will wait through April.
You do not have to die this certain day.
Death will abide, will pamper your postponement.
I assure you death will wait. Death has
a lot of time. Death can
attend to you tomorrow. Or next week. Death is
just down the street; is most obliging neighbor;
can meet you any moment.

You need not die today.
Stay here--through pout or pain or peskyness.
Stay here. See what the news is going to be tomorrow.

Graves grow no green that you can use.
Remember, green's your color. You are Spring.

Comments

[girliebacchanal.livejournal.com]

I love this, thanks.

[i-hunger.livejournal.com]

Me too. Gwendolyn Brooks is lovely!

I also love your icon! Is it Alphonse Mucha?

[girliebacchanal.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It's by a Belgian artist called Privat-Livemont.

[sliverofsanity.livejournal.com]

very nice. I like the line breaks "Death has/a lot of time. Death can/..."
The end is almost trite, but isn't.
I'm keeping this one. Thanks!

[break-the-stars.livejournal.com]

this made me *mentally* cry (i don't really cry.. conditioning...). a lot. an experience that hits quite close to home.

[break-the-stars.livejournal.com]

hahah no i conditioned myself to not cry. i don't cry unless something is really really really upsettingly affecting my personal life.

perhaps that's the things. i was taught it was more a weakness than a power. alas.

[break-the-stars.livejournal.com]

i write. that's how i let go. :)

surely.

[iatrogenicmyth.livejournal.com]

it's not that easy. it takes a lot of work.

[break-the-stars.livejournal.com]

♥ you understand. :)

[fatal-xtc.livejournal.com]

Conditioned by yourself or someone else? Just wondering.

[break-the-stars.livejournal.com]

i conditioned myself. sorta. my father had a way with attempting to raise me like a boy i think...

[virginia-bell.livejournal.com]

I just loved the alliteration of "graves grow no green."

[gardenwaltz.livejournal.com]

i want to graffiti this on large walls everywhere.

[aria-muse.livejournal.com]

i love that this was said

[fatal-xtc.livejournal.com]

Very powerful poem.

[wanton-wonton.livejournal.com]

Lovely.

[shadowfax994.livejournal.com]

i appreciate this poem because it doesn't ridicule or discount anyone's pain. it doesn't say everything will be okay. it just says, please, wait.

i wish i had been introduced to this poem sooner.

[i-hunger.livejournal.com]

I agree. I wish I could have read this poem when times were harder, when I needed these words said to me. Now this poem is like a memory of how I was. A photograph in words.

[damnthedreams.livejournal.com]

Favourited

[ashcanprobably.livejournal.com]

Fast fast fast.

[the-xtina.livejournal.com]

I echo what an above commenter says - it doesn't lie, it just says to wait.

For no good reason, it reminds me of this comic (http://xkcd.com/167/).  (No, really.)

[tears-of-nienna.livejournal.com]

I had forgotten about that particular XKCD comic. Oddly enough, it's as comforting as the poem. :D

[shadowfax994.livejournal.com]

off topic, but, stephen icon = ♥. :]

[annainthebox.livejournal.com]

this needs to be big.
written everywhere.
I might even make a bulletin board out of it...

[acreofbones.livejournal.com]

Fuck. Utterly perfect.

[melodily.livejournal.com]

I would agree with all of them up there-- this is powerful (:

[heaven-spawn.livejournal.com]

WOW.

(man, if I had bigger fonts, I'd use it with my "wow")