When You Die You Go Away
Title: When You Die You Go Away
Creator: Hannah Teves
Category: Death
Creator Commentary:
As a result of recent personal and mental healing, my outlook on enormous, abstract concepts like life and existence have changed drastically– and my growing intimacy and closeness with friends, family, and my partner have transformed my thoughts about the afterlife, and death in particular. I am not particularly religious, and I dislike institutionalized religion, but thoughts about death are universal and common. This poem was formed from my own thoughts and questions about death. Many people gave a distant, separated relationship with God and ideas of heaven, and I have always wanted something more personal and vulnerable. In this piece, I combine the traditional ideas of “going away” after death with more contemporary ideas of a god that is kind and parental, as well as an afterlife that is affected by human intimacy, relationships, and items that are reflective of minute but significant moments in each person’s life, such as a childhood quilt or hot chocolate. My perception of death is also that of a journey, moving on from this life to something else that is unknown but not separate or better than our lives on earth. I wanted this poem to work differently than my other poetry, relying on simple language, contained syllable count, and personal but common images, in order to express the our universal, child-like (but essentially human) thoughts about death.
Submission:
Creator Bio:
Hannah Teves is an English Literature, Rhetoric, and Cultural Studies major from San Diego, CA. They enjoy writing poems about small moments and big thoughts, listening to sad folk music, and giving very good hugs.