I Don't Want To Die On The Rock

a poem

Note: this poem is a follow up to a poem I wrote in 2022 called Let Me Die On The Rock, which was inspired by Bob Dylan’s song: Lie Me Die In My Footsteps.

I wrote this poem in January and will publish it in print sometime in the future but felt the need to share it, after reflecting on Let Me Die On The Rock.

Thanks for reading (or listening).

Listen to the poem.

I don’t want to die on a rock

Or die by the clock

I want to die in my sleep

Next to a beautiful, caring woman at one hundred

If that’s when the natural time will be

I don’t want to die on the rock

Too many peers saw that fate

I’ve come so close, grateful

My end pushed back to another date

By that mysterious force we sometimes call

God

They died doing what they love

To me the most cringiest of words

But almost always said out of love

Because we don’t know what else to say

Because we as a culture need to work on

Grieving

I want to outlive the bastards

As Ed Abbey used to say

But damn new bastards

Are being born every day

If there’s a hell below

We’re all going to go

As Curtis Mayfield used to say

I’m far from innocent, complicit

In this current age of destruction

The age of digital connections

That makes me crave human connections

I don’t want to die on the rock

I just want to climb the rock

Share my life with my friends

On the rock

Because on the rock

Is where I feel the most free

On the rock is where I feel the

Most me

I don’t want to die on the rock, anytime soon

I want many more kisses, many more hugs

I want many more of everything that is love

I don’t want to die on the rock

Just give me some chalk

And let me climb that rock

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The poem: Lie Me Die On The Rock, was originally published in Volume 22 of The Climbing Zine.

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