Contest | Poetry | Epitaph (April 2007)

[Icarus]

Defying the spring season that is just around the corner, we’re asking you this month to take on the rather morbid task of writing an epitaph. It can be silly, it can be serious and it doesn’t have to be your own (though that’d be quite amusing). While most epitaphs are limited to one verse, we’ll allow as many as three verses.

Here are two examples to get you started.

Originally Posted by shadowpoetry.com

Epitaph
An epitaph is a brief poem inscribed on a tombstone praising a deceased person, usually
with rhyming lines.

Example #1:
What happened to me, was not good,
Hit by a car, bounced off the hood,
Would get up, if only I could,
Now here I lay, where once I stood.

Copyright © 2001 Lorraine Nisbet

Example #2:
Where lies One-Eyed Willie
Who died while laughing himself silly.
He drank too much liquor
That started his snicker
and ended up six feet under.

Copyright © 2001 Marie Summers

As you can see, example 1 has four lines while example 2 has five, and they have different rhyme schemes. We won’t be sticklers about either technicality, so feel free to be creative.

So, in summary:
- epitaph
- 1-3 verses
- rhyming is optional

You have until 11:59 p.m. on April 24th to post your submissions. Good luck but don’t work yourselves to death!

(Check out this for some famous epitaphs.)

[riverstone]

Good one, Icarus!
Kit

[josiehenley]

I like it. Anyone heard the poem about the baby that went down the plug hole? It's supposed to be said in a Cockney (London) accent. Not sure if it's classed as an epitaph. There's always 'under this little sod lies another one'. I'm going to write my own.

[_zeb_]

((( just to be clear... this is my own work... my brother thout it would be "funny" to make it look not myne ... i took care of him on my computer now so no more problem there... the past coments last posted here were not myne and this work is myne... tyvm)))

You up there staring down at me
Remember wind flows and you may hear
I may be in heaven it may be true
I can still see you staring down at yours truly

My marry tune as festive as can be
Listen hard and you can hear
A flute, a drum, a banjo too
Mostly you can hear my violin
Playing through the wind

[sprttrck7]

Oh sweet death
My lifes reward
It's not the end
I'm with my Lord

[aprilrain]

Originally Posted by _zeb_

((( i decided to go from my grandpas epitaph, just so you know, and he wrote himself)))

_zeb_,
Just to be clear, is this your original work or are you sharing with us something your grandfather wrote?

[gary_wagner]

Here lies the drunk that killed my son
I shot him dead with a loaded gun
To honor my boy, whom I dearly miss
Please stand at this grave and take a piss

[sprttrck7]

Good one, Gary

[winterstorm]

This is a man, 80,who's been married to his wife who acts just like a controlling mom:

Up bright and early
Every morning she said
" But what about when I'm dead?!"

[josiehenley]

Here's my entry, made it to the maximum 3 stanzas. If I get the choice, then this would be my own epitaph. Though I want to be cremated so not sure if I'll have a tombstone.

Reincarnacat

Oh tail-less humans with no balance
half-blind, half-deaf and with no sense.
You smell bad, you don’t think, you waste your one life.
Why did I choose to be you?

Losing my whiskers confused me
Closed doors bemused me.
I no longer wonder why you think you’re superior.
Curiosity killed me in the end.

I enjoyed owning a dog
I leaped, I fought, I hissed and scratched.
Forgetting at the last that I would not land on my feet.
I died proving that I could live.

[Love2Write]

Here lies poor little Susie,
her death was a doosie.
Her boyfriend pulled the trigger,
because she was a gold digger.

[wannawrite]

She crossed the road
And now she's dead.
To look both ways
Never entered her head.

[ENILORAC]

Come, Place your flowers at this spot
Be assured, I will see them on my plot
you may dance and sing next to my grave
for through your happiness, I am saved.

[o'connell]

To the earth I lay you down,
Half smile, part frown,
All skies your soul will breach,
Yet never beyond our reach.