Shadows of an Afterlife
Elizabeth Agiantritis
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2009 Elizabeth Agiantritis
Discover other titles by Elizabeth Agiantritis at Smashwords.com:
Sorrow Tears: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1992
A Life in Darkness: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1860
Dawn of Miracles: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/2880
Poetry for my Mother: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1873
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For more information on the author and her poems, visit her website:
http://elizabeths-poetry.hostei.com
This Land
Promises of happiness
Led me to this land.
Hope for a better tomorrow
Brought me to this land.
The rays of the sun shining through a clear sky
Made me stay in this land.
But sadness, the past and dark clouds
Forced me to leave this land.
This land which I loved,
This land which I wished to die in,
This land which I once called home,
This land which in the end
Was only in my mind.
Tears That Burn My Soul
Tears that burn my soul,
Tears that run down my two cheeks,
Tears that burn my soul
Promises I meant to keep.
Wishfully I think of yesterday
Hoping that it will return,
So I can keep those promises
Wanting it not to be my turn.
For death must wait,
Yes death must wait
So I can turn the clocks around
So I can keep those promises
So I can wipe those soul-burning tears away.
But yesterday remains in the past
So my promises got lost in the wind
And death will await me not
So I shall die with a tear stained soul.
In the Name of Love, Freedom, Religion
In the name of love, freedom, religion
Did I not walk through
The burning flames of Hell?
In the name of love, freedom, religion
Did I not enter
The world of the non-living
The world of the eternal dead?
In the name of love, freedom, religion
Did I not lose all I owned,
Including my self-respect,
Including even my soul?
In the name of all these
Did I not try my very best
Until my very best was not enough?
And in the end
Did I not lose the meaning
Of love, freedom, religion?
Oh yes! I most surely did.
To a Place
To a place
Where rainbows meet,
Where Angels
Wake and sleep,
I shall go.
To a place
Where all snow melts,
Where rain never falls,
I promise to go.
To a place
Where anger never is,
Where bitterness never lives,
I hope to go.
To a place
Where miracles are,
Where hope can be held,
I shall not go.
For I could never go
To a place that never has been.
And Then Truth Came
We sat together,
Not all of us of course,
Perhaps just a mere handful.
We sat and hoped of a world full of sunshine,
A world where it would never rain.
We sat and hoped,
And we believed in our hopes.
We turned away from all that hurt us,
We only ever faced
What would please us.
We lived in an illusion
And we were happy.
And then truth came,
It began to rain
And we could see it.
Reality had reached our carefully put up walls,
Ugliness was no longer something we could ignore,
And the harshness of all that was real
Would let us dream no more.
Destination Unknown
Walk with me,
Be with me,
Follow me.
You think that you know me
But you don't.
I carefully hide in the shadows
So that you never see my true face,
You only ever see
What I set you see.
And I ask you to come with me,
Though I know not
What hides behind every corner.
And I ask you to come with me
To a destination unknown.
I can sense your fear
But I know
That you want to join me.
So walk with me,
Be with me,
Follow me,
Though it remains
Destination unknown.
Tombstone
It's hard to know
Just what to say,
What to do,
And how to act around you,
When you have lost
What's dearest to you,
Your very own breath of air.
So this I think
Here where I sit
Upon the ground
Right in front
Of a tombstone
That carries your name.
Follow Me
Tonight my aching heart
Yearns for salvation.
As I stand and walk around
I can hear the creaking of my bones.
As I approach the mirror
All I can see
Is a wrinkled face
Surrounded by white hair.
I turn away
But it makes no difference,
I am still the same.
I speak, but my voice echoes
In an empty room.
Loneliness relentlessly rips at my heart.
Tonight I hear a whispery voice
Calling out to me,
Follow me,
Follow me,
It' time to go,
Follow me...
Untitled
It was not the words
That hurt,
But rather the silence.
It was not the lies
That mocked us,
But rather the truth.
It was not sorrow
That relentlessly tormented our senses,
But rather without the boundaries of joy.
And it was not the dead ends
That kept us imprisoned,
But rather the open roads
That taunted us
And asked us to cross them
Knowing that our every step on them
Led us closer
To the darkness and the cold of death.
The Waltz of Death
I saw before me
A murderer,
A ruthless slayer of dreams.
I told him that hated him,
But he just smiled enigmatically.
We danced together
The waltz of Death,
We danced together
To the tune of hopelessness.
We knew no tomorrow,
We had forgotten every yesterday,
And we lived in a hazy today.
I tried to brake free
But he just pulled me closer,
Every step I took
He took one with me,
Like a second shadow
He followed my every move,
Until I finally could take no more.
And so I told him
But he just said to me
That one more time would not hurt me
One more dance would not kill me,
But by then
I already knew
That the very first dance
Had actually been the last one.
The Mirror of Truth
Looking in the mirror of truth
I see only the reflection of me.
Looking in the mirror of truth
I see only fragments of my life,
I no longer see a whole person,
I see but an incomplete soul,
I no longer see all of me,
I see but a hazed image.
Looking in the mirror of truth
I see myself walking the earth
With no emotions,
I have nothing to live for,
Nothing to die for.
Looking in the mirror of truth
I see the truth
And everything that comes with it.
Dead Among Us
There are among us
Those who know
All there is to know,
Those who see
All there is to see,
Those that are
All that can be.
They walk among us,
Though we can not see them,
For they are,
The dead.
They drag with them the past
And hide from us the future.
For each of us
There is a dead that follows along.
And in the end
What should not happen, happens,
Dead among us live.
Nothingness
When I close my eyes
I become one with nothingness,
I am no longer
And no longer am I.
It is neither dark nor light,
It is simply emptiness,
And I am one with it.
It embraces me
And I embrace it,
It surrounds me
And I get lost in it.
When I open my eyes
I become one with everything,
I become one with harshness, ugliness, cruelty,
So I close my eyes
And I once again
Become one with nothingness.
Inner Self
My heart aches
When your heart breaks.
My eyes water
With the tears that you cry.
My ears listen
To the words that you hear.
My lips speak
All you say.
I am your shadow,
I am your other self
I am you.
How Sorry I Am For
How sorry I am for those
Who do not know how to laugh,
Who do not know how to love,
Who do not know how to cry
And how to hate.
How sorry I am for those
Who do not feel
And into oblivion disappear.
How sorry I am for those
Who see the days pass by
Without ever counting them.
How sorry I am for those
Who do not know how to listen
And who for no reason speak
In a room
In which there is no one.
I Was Beautiful
I was beautiful
Before I knew
The hatred in the world.
I was beautiful
Before I saw
The darkness of the sky.
I was beautiful
Before I tasted
The bitter fruits of life.
I was beautiful
Before I smelt the scent of death.
I was beautiful
Before I felt
The years pass by.
Untitled
It is not death
That scares me,
It is the loneliness.
It is not the blackness of the dark
That scares me,
It is transparency of colourlessness.
It is not pessimism
That scares me,
It is the baseless hope.
It is not the extremities
That scare me,
It is the compromises.
Untititled
When the sky is grey,
When the sun can not be seen,
That’s when they come.
They laugh at the righteous
And dance with the wicked.
They claw their way through the earth
And leave nothing but ashes behind them.
Cruel memories are what they are,
My immortal soul is what they want.