OK, so it’s a little morbid, writing poetry about dying. Still, poetry is probably a better way to address the issue than, let’s say, writing a note on your life insurance premium check that says “I hope I never use your product.” In fact, death is probably one of the most common themes in poetry, and poetry can be a great way to deal with the emotions surrounding our own mortality.

I personally like this one, “As befits a man,” by Langston Hughes. He covers pretty much everything I can think of, and it says something about how you live life even more than it does about how you die:

As Befits a Man

By Langston Hughes

I don’t mind dying—

But I’d hate to die all alone!

I want a dozen pretty women

To holler, cry, and moan.

I don’t mind dying

But I want my funeral to be fine:

A row of long tall mamas

Fainting, Fanning, and crying.

I want a fish-tail hearse

And sixteen fish-tail cars,

A big brass band

And a whole truck load of flowers.

When they let me down,

Down into the clay,

I want the women to holler:

Please don’t take him away!

Ow-ooo-oo-o!

Please don’t take daddy away!

Now, I don’t know about you, but that gets me, deep down. Of course, the author was one of the most famous poets of his age, and passed away in 1967 after complications from a surgery related to prostate cancer. His ashes are interred under a floor memorial in the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem.

Photo via moacirpdsp