Death

by James Thomas Fletcher

"Long ago I began to collect a funeral pyre of corpses to follow in my wake," writes James Thomas Fletcher.

Here are poems "Dressed in garments of farewell, bon voyage for a ticket purchased long ago." Stroll through this private cemetery with shadows beside the path. To "graves where sorrow eats its own body and joy is ever tarnished with guilt." Where unfinished hangs in the air. Read these tombstones of tribute, the poet's "sad things to grace their coffins."

Death I never noticed theethough you have always been hereas shadows on my path.

Genres: Poetry

92 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 23, 2019

About the author

James Thomas Fletcher is native to Oklahoma. After a brief stint in college, he left the state to see if the rest of the world existed. Along the way, he picked cotton, made fiberglass and, in hazmat suit, cleaned filters inside a nuclear laundry. He was an M-60 machine gunner in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, company clerk at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, (NATO\SHAPE) in Belgium, bartender in South Carolina, bricklayer in Oklahoma, oil field chainhand in Louisiana, roustabout in the Gulf of Mexico, English instructor in North Carolina, and Director of Computer-Aided Instruction at the University of Illinois in Chicago.

Academically, he holds Master’s of Arts in English degrees in Creative Writing and Composition & Rhetoric, has been honored for outstanding teaching, and presented at national and international conferences on the subject of computer pedagogy. In addition, he has earned Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and Advanced Certified Novell Administrator computer certifications.

Now retired, his motorcycle and hang glider long since sold. His pilot's license expired. He no longer restores pinball machines, skydives, scubas, sails, or paints. He has forgotten how to play the bagpipe. His didgeridoo sits idle. He was once removed by the director from a part in his own stage play, but that has not discouraged him from continuing to write. He has written short stories, plays, and screenplays, but favors poetry.

He lives on the side of a volcano in the Republic of Panamá

Reviews

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joining "War," "Nature," and "Love," "Death" is the final volume in my tetralogy of themed poetry books. Since my writing is so eclectic, I felt that readers would appreciate volumes dedicated to a single theme so that they might have a better expectation of what they would be reading and could choose a subject that more interested them.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joining "War," "Nature," and "Love," "Death" is the final volume in my tetralogy of themed poetry books. Since my writing is so eclectic, I felt that readers would appreciate volumes dedicated to a single theme so that they might have a better expectation of what they would be reading and could choose a subject that more interested them.