Living Ancients | Poetry Out Loud

By Matthew Shenoda

For those of us young
healthy
we will face the mourning of our elders.
Bury them beneath
the earth.
And for those of us
who believe the living
ever-live
we will stand by the graves of our teachers
and know that we
like those we've buried
are living ancients.

Source: Please Excuse This Poem: 100 New Poets for the Next Generation (Viking Press, 2015)

Living

Poet Bio

Matthew Shenoda earned his BA from Oregon State University and MFA from the University of Arizona. Former assistant provost for equity and diversity and faculty member in the School of Critical Studies at the California Institute of the Arts, Shenoda currently serves as interim chair in the Creative Writing Department and associate professor in the School of Fine & Performing Arts at Columbia College Chicago. He is on the editorial board of the African Poetry Book Series and lives in Chicago with his family. He is the son of Coptic Christians, and in his work, he explores diasporic identity and pan-Arabism. See More By This Poet

More Poems about Living

Spring Snow

A spring snow coincides with plum blossoms.
In a month, you will forget, then remember
when nine ravens perched in the elm sway in wind.

I will remember when I brake to a stop,
and a hubcap rolls through the intersection.
An angry man grinds...

By Arthur Sze

Living

At the Equinox

The tide ebbs and reveals orange and purple sea stars.
I have no theory of radiance,

but after rain evaporates
off pine needles, the needles glisten.

In the courtyard, we spot the rising shell of a moon,
and,...

By Arthur Sze

Living
Nature

Browse poems about Living Get a random poem