Goodnight
Goodnight; ensured release,
Imperishable peace,
Have these for yours,
While sea abides, and land,
And earth’s foundations stand,
and heaven endures.
When earth’s foundations flee,
nor sky nor land nor sea
At all is found
Content you, let them burn:
It is not your concern;
Sleep on, sleep sound.
A.E Housman
A lily of a day
is fairer in May,
although it fall and die that night-
It was the plant and flower of Light.
In small proportions we just beauties see:
and in short measures life may perfect be.
Ben Jonson
There is no night
There is no night without a dawning
No winter without a spring
And beyond the dark horizon
Our hearts will once more sing ….
For those who leave us for a while
Have only gone away
Out of a restless, care worn world
Into a brighter day
Helen Steiner Rice
They are not dead,
Who leave us this great heritage
Of remembered joy.
They still live in our hearts,
In the happiness we knew,
In the dreams we shared.
They still breathe,
In the lingering fragrance windblown,
From their favourite flowers.
They still smile in the moonlight's silver
And laugh in the sunlight's sparkling gold.
They still speak in the echoes of words
We've heard them say again and again.
They still move,
In the rhythm of waving grasses,
In the dance of the tossing branches.
They are not dead;
Their memory is warm in our hearts,
Comfort in our sorrow.
They are not apart from us,
But a part of us
For love is eternal,
And those we love shall be with us
Throughout all eternity.
Anon
They Are Not Dead
They are not dead,
Who leave us this great heritage
Of remembered joy.
They still live in our hearts,
In the happiness we knew,
In the dreams we shared.
They still breathe,
In the lingering fragrance windblown,
From their favourite flowers.
They still smile in the moonlight's silver
And laugh in the sunlight's sparkling gold.
They still speak in the echoes of words
We've heard them say again and again.
They still move,
In the rhythm of waving grasses,
In the dance of the tossing branches.
They are not dead;
Their memory is warm in our hearts,
Comfort in our sorrow.
They are not apart from us,
But a part of us
For love is eternal,
And those we love shall be with us
Throughout all eternity.
Anon
In Remembrance
You gave me life
To live as I please,
You gave me love and
Support to follow my dreams.
Your beauty lives
Forever deep in my soul,
The memory of your love
Fills my heart
And I am never alone.
Christine Currah
Loss
Something's dead inside me.
Some yesterday is slain.
My heart is hung upon a cross,
my thoughts are dull with pain.
And yet there is within me
a hope I can't explain
For in the darkness I can see
God dancing in the rain.
I surrender to the mystery
of loss that turns to fain.
The little seed of wheat must die
to become a field of grain,
and I know it's in this time of grief,
that Christ is risen again
For in the darkness I can see
God dancing in the rain.
Joy Cowley
Gaellic Blessing
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields
and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.
Traditional
from God of the Open Air
These are the things I prize
And hold of dearest worth:
Light of the sapphire skies,
Peace of the silent hills,
Shelter of forests, comfort of the grass,
Music of birds, murmur of little rills,
Shadow of clouds that swiftly pass,
And, after showers,
The smell of flowers
And of the good brown earth,--
And best of all, along the way, friendship and mirth.
So let me keep
These treasures of the humble heart
In true possession, owning them by love;
And when at last I can no longer move
Among them freely, but must part
From the green fields and from the waters clear,
Let me not creep
Into some darkened room and hide
From all that makes the world so bright and dear;
But throw the windows wide
To welcome in the light;
And while I clasp a well-beloved hand,
Let me once more have sight
Of the deep sky and the far-smiling land,--
Then gently fall on sleep,
And breathe my body back to Nature's care,
My spirit out to thee, God of the open air.
Henry Van Dyke
Only a Little While
We were together
Only a little while,
And we believed our love
Would last a thousand years.
Yakamochi
I Was Loved, Therefore I Am
I was loved, therefore I am,
And in being loved, I am treasured.
When I peeled away my layers,
And all that was left was my essence,
The bareness of me,
I was still loved.
I was loved, therefore I am,
And in being loved I was able to grow.
In my mistakes held,
In my successes celebrated,
I was always loved.
I was loved therefore I am,
And in being loved I learned to love.
In the sun filled day,
In the ecstasy of the night,
I was loved and loved others.
To be loved is all you need:
I was loved....and so, I will always be.
Ana Draper
The Divinity That Stirs Within Us
It must be so. Plato, thou reasonest well!
Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing after immortality?
Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror
of falling into naught? Why shrinks the soul
Back on herself, and startles at destruction?
'Tis the divinity that stirs within us.
'Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter
and intimates eternity to man.
From Soliloquy on Immortality TRANSLATED BY JOSEPH ADDISON
