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  • "Pass On," Michael Lee

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    Alex Flores
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    This poem is an elegy about the poet's friend Stephen who passed away. The poem explores the theme that when we die, we do not truly die but instead our spirit and essence are passed on to others. The poet believes that no one is ever truly lost and that attributes of lost loved ones can be found in others. Through vivid imagery of wind and electricity, the poem conveys that our bodies are simply vessels and when we die our spirit is released and transferred to renew and live on in others.

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    Pass On

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    This poem is an elegy about the poet's friend Stephen who passed away. The poem explores the theme that when we die, we do not truly die but instead our spirit and essence are passed on to others. The poet believes that no one is ever truly lost and that attributes of lost loved ones can be found in others. Through vivid imagery of wind and electricity, the poem conveys that our bodies are simply vessels and when we die our spirit is released and transferred to renew and live on in others.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    1K views5 pages

    "Pass On," Michael Lee

    Uploaded by

    Alex Flores
    This poem is an elegy about the poet's friend Stephen who passed away. The poem explores the theme that when we die, we do not truly die but instead our spirit and essence are passed on to others. The poet believes that no one is ever truly lost and that attributes of lost loved ones can be found in others. Through vivid imagery of wind and electricity, the poem conveys that our bodies are simply vessels and when we die our spirit is released and transferred to renew and live on in others.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 5

    “Pass On,” Michael Lee

    When searching for the lost remember 8 things.

    1.

    We are vessels. We are circuit boards

    swallowing the electricity of life upon birth.

    It wheels through us creating every moment,

    the pulse of a story, the soft hums of labor and love.

    In our last moment it will come rushing

    from our chests and be given back to the wind.

    When we die. We go everywhere.

    2.

    Newton said energy is neither created nor destroyed.

    In the halls of my middle school I can still hear

    my friend Stephen singing his favorite song.

    In the gymnasium I can still hear

    the way he dribbled that basketball like it was a mallet

    and the earth was a xylophone.

    With an ear to the Atlantic I can hear

    the Titanic’s band playing her to sleep,

    Music. Wind. Music. Wind.

    3.

    The day my grandfather passed away there was the strongest wind,
    I could feel his gentle hands blowing away from me.

    I knew then they were off to find someone

    who needed them more than I did.

    On average 1.8 people on earth die every second.

    There is always a gust of wind somewhere.

    4.

    The day Stephen was murdered

    everything that made us love him rushed from his knife wounds

    as though his chest were an auditorium

    his life an audience leaving single file.

    Every ounce of him has been

    wrapping around this world in a windstorm

    I have been looking for him for 9 years.

    5.

    Our bodies are nothing more than hosts to a collection of brilliant things.

    When someone dies I do not weep over polaroids or belongings,

    I begin to look for the lightning that has left them,

    I feel out the strongest breeze and take off running.

    6.

    After 9 years I found Stephen.

    I passed a basketball court in Boston

    the point guard dribbled like he had a stadium roaring in his palms
    Wilt Chamberlain pumping in his feet,

    his hands flashing like x-rays,

    a cross-over, a wrap-around

    rewinding, turn-tables cracking open,

    camera-men turn flash bulbs to fireworks.

    Seven games and he never missed a shot,

    his hands were luminous.

    Pulsing. Pulsing.

    I asked him how long he’d been playing,

    he said nine 9 years

    7.

    The theory of six degrees of separation

    was never meant to show how many people we can find,

    it was a set of directions for how to find the people we have lost.

    I found your voice Stephen,

    found it in a young boy in Michigan who was always singing,

    his lungs flapping like sails

    I found your smile in Australia,

    a young girl’s teeth shining like the opera house in your neck,

    I saw your one true love come to life on the asphalt of Boston.

    8.

    We are not created or destroyed,


    we are constantly transferred, shifted and renewed.

    Everything we are is given to us.

    Death does not come when a body is too exhausted to live

    Death comes, because the brilliance inside us can only be contained for so long.

    We do not die. We pass on, pass on the lightning burning through our throats.

    when you leave me I will not cry for you

    I will run into the strongest wind I can find

    and welcome you home.


    Topic of Poem

    This poem is about one of Lee's old friends, Stephen, who passed away. This
    poem is an elegy where Lee explains that he will not mourn for his friend, he will
    believe that no one is ever truly lost and will strive to find the attributes that made
    Stephen his friend.

    Themes
    One of The themes of this poem is that we never truly die. Our spirit is passed on
    to others.

    Imagery
    The first 'step' is one big metaphor:
    "We are vessels. We are circuit boards
    swallowing the electricity of life upon birth."
    This is used to give the sense that we are all bigger than what we seem, literally
    speaking, it means that our bodies are just objects that carry our true selves and
    when we die, we are just released from one body into many others, meaning that
    we will forever exist, just in different forms.

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