In Other Words, Departure - By: Almaz Berhane

Emotions I can never comprehend

Sailing the storm of life on a boat

Death is my world end

Places deep inside where pain and pleasure blend

My comfort is about time, it has overgrown

Even with life as my friend

With all my money feel free to spend

Yet I feel my soul left no mark, no note

Death is my world end

With your sympathy can you lend?

My smile and wrinkles, spots on my cheekbone

Even with life as my friend

When I feel the cold hands bend

I know I have moved on, home

and death is my world end

In heaven or hell I may have to fend

On my corpse, were my pupils blown?

Even with life as my friend

Death is my world end

Please give a detailed explanation about the meaning and main idea of this poem.

I believe the poem can kind of speak for itself, I want readers to interpret the message however they like, as I never had a full meaning for it myself beyond the word "death"

Please explain your writing and thought process regarding this poem.

This was my first attempt at a specific type of structured poem called a villanelle. I just gave myself the starting theme of "death" and kind of let myself wander within the boundaries of the structure. Usually, my poems have a lot of emotion or thought behind them but this one is different, I think the lack of intention on my part leaves me feeling a sort of "emptiness" when I read it, in combination with the words, makes me feel quite satisfied.

Why did you choose to write this poem?

Simply because I was bored. Having recently done poetry in my creative writing class, I was curious to see what other types of poetry there were, that is where I stumbled across villanelle and wanted to attempt one.

Do you have any tips or anything to share with the youth writers who may be reading this?

No matter what keep writing!