Leaving This World



I’ve looked and watched
  you turn away

Seeing things
  you’ve long denied

I grabbed the lion
  by his mane

Staring through
  the devil’s eye

I bought
  a one-way ticket

While never
  looking back

I’ve sailed and searched
  the roughest seas

My rigging
  often slack

I gave away
  all that I had

And asked for
  nothing more

I played the game
  and damned the rules

Rejecting
  any score

I stole my fate back
  from the wind

Which blew
  from side to side

And asking once
  my only wish...

   —to leave this world alive

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2018)
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Submitted by KurtPhilipBehm on July 18, 2018

Modified on April 21, 2023

28 sec read
31

Quick analysis:

Scheme XA XB XX CD XX XE XX FE AX GG XX FG EX CB XX X D
Closest metre Iambic dimeter
Characters 537
Words 96
Stanzas 17
Stanza Lengths 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1

Kurt Philip Behm

Longtime writer with twelve books in publication. Three of them Poetry. : The Death Of The Playground : The Sword Of Ichiban : Searching For Crazy Horse : Darkening Sun : An Anthology Of Perception-Vol's 1 & 2 : After Midnight : Sammy And Bumpers : The Fall City Mandate : Revenge Along The War Trail : Death from The Sky more…

All Kurt Philip Behm poems | Kurt Philip Behm Books

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    "Leaving This World" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/47266/leaving-this-world>.

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