Poetry About Blood

Blood is our most primal symbol. It is the literal river of life that keeps us existing, but it is also the metaphorical bond of family and the tragic cost of violence. These poems trace the flow of blood through our history, our bodies, and our myths.

From the 'blood of the covenant' to the 'bad blood' of feud, from the flush of embarrassment to the spill of war, this collection examines the liquid that unites and divides us. It is sticky, warm, and undeniably vital.

Featured Poems

Red River

The invisible current inside.

A silent ocean trapped in skin, tides driven by the heart's unrelenting moon.

It carries salt and iron, oxygen and ancestors, a history written in red ink circulating forever in the dark.

- Julian Hemat

Thicker Than Water

The bonds of family.

We share the same nose, the same temper, the same peculiar way of sneezing. The map is stamped in our cells.

You can run from home, but you cannot run from the veins that built you.

- Sarah Clan

The Cut

The shock of seeing the inside out.

The knife slips, and suddenly the boundary breaches. A bead of bright crimson flowers on the finger.

A startling reminder of how fragile the vessel, how precious the wine.

- Leo Sharp

Classic Voices

Macbeth (Excerpt)

by William Shakespeare (1606)

Lady Macbeth's guilt manifests as blood that cannot be washed away.

Out, damned spot! out, I say! - One: two: why, then, 'tis time to do't. - Hell is murky! ... Here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798)

The price paid with one's own blood.

With my cross-bow I shot the ALBATROSS. ... Instead of the cross, the Albatross About my neck was hung.

Micro Verses

The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.

- Original Proverb

Blood makes you related. Loyalty makes you family.

- Unknown

The blood is the life.

- Deuteronomy 12:23

Noble blood is an accident of fortune; noble actions characterize the great.

- Carlo Goldoni

Deeper Explorations

Violence

The cost of conflict.

The Field

The poppies grow redder here, fed by the boys who fell too soon. The earth drinks deep and forgets nothing.

- Soldier X

Passion

Hot blood.

Pulse

My blood sings when you are near, a drumbeat in my ears drowning out the world.

- Valerie Love

Poetry About