The Poem Workshop

What once was meant to be a statement—
a dripping dagger held in the fist
of a shuddering heart—is now just a bruise

Read the first stanza of “Childhood is the Kingdom Where Nobody Dies” by Edna St. Vincent Millay and only the first stanza. Without reading the poem in its entirety, from only this stanza continue the poem with the idea of what that statement means to you. How is childhood the kingdom where nobody dies? Is it really that?

Write a poem about the person who’s death this poem is describing. The poem may be about the person, the actual death, the event that caused the death, or anything else that may come to mind. Try to incorporate one of the images from this poem into your poem.