IconElegies

I was only 18 when they condemned me to death, accused of burning symbols of the oppressors. My only crime was that I wanted freedom. To live as I wanted. They will executed me, like so many others. So many people's blood was shed on their clothes. How could I have remained silent? A poet's note. Melika Azizi was comdemned to death in Iran.

No one knows when I died. No one knows where my bones rest. I was just one of so many who died, the day I died. I never even turned sixteen, nor did I ever grow up, nor did I ever get married. I am forever fifteen. Without my diary, no one would know I existed, nor would the many who died with me. Poet's Note. Anne Frank died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and became famous for her diary, which has survived.

My name was Elisabeth Stride, but I was called Long-Liz in the street. The gentleman  who later became known as Jack the Ripper, murdered me in Whitechapel. He didn't mutilate me like an animal, but I couldn't have known that. He left me like trash in the street anyway. In reality I was Elisabeth Gustafsdotter, a peasant woman from Sweden. How I ended up living in Spitalfields,  as a drunk whore in the middle of the filth, is a long story, which would have been forgotten long ago  without Jack the Ripper. Poet's Note. Elizabeth Gustafsdotter, later Elisabeth Stride, was one of Jack the Ripper's victims.

I always knew I could be killed, but when it happened, it surprised me. Whether I was shot by a lone madman or by a conspiracy. I will never know. I didn't even get to see the face of my shooter. I had faced tough opponents myself, but I was shot in the back. Cowards. A poet's note. Olof Palme was a long-serving Prime Minister of Sweden

I would rather have died in the uprising than how I died. No. I was not lynched by a mob but I was beaten with rifle butts, shot like a dog. Then I was thrown into the canal like garbage. But they did not succeed in overthrowing justice and revolution. Poet's note. Rosa Luxemburg was revolutionary.

I was a falling man No one could have guessed what would happen that day. It was a very ordinary day. People still wonder who I was. I don't think it will ever be solved. Does it matter anymore? It all stems from that photo of me falling from the tower. I knew I was dying, no one could survive that. It brought a strange peace. Poet's note. The Falling Man is an iconic picture of a man falling from the WTC tower, whose identity has not been fully confirmed.

I prayed for my unborn son, that he would be spared. I offered myself as their prisoner, but they would not spare me, not me, not my son. Blood, blows and blood... They wrote in my blood... I had become a Hollywood star, but I was murdered, buried with my son in my arms. So sad. Poet's note. Actress Sharon Tate was murdered by the Manson clan in a mass murder. She was pregnant.

My name was JonBenet my death is still a mystery. I was only six years old, I had golden hair and the best smile in the world when they took me to heaven, I couldn't breathe. I was a little miss, Americas royal miss and my killer is still free. Why did he hurt me took me to heaven? Who killed me they keep asking over and over again. Poet's note. JonBenet Ramsey's murder was world news. The killer has still not been caught.

I was a beauty without equal, but my beauty did not save me. My mother locked me in a dark closet. I died even though I lived in all that dirt and smell, naked and ugly like an animal in a cage. My crime was to fall in love with the wrong man. I brought shame with my madness. The century changed and I knew nothing about it. My love kept me alive, but not in my mind for 25 years. When I saw the light again, my eyes could not stand it nor my soul nor my love. Poet's note. Blanche Monnier lived locked in a dark room for 25 years.