DEATH IS NOTHING


Death is nothing at all,
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Whatever we were to each, that we are still.
Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used.

Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me. Pray for me.
Let my name be the household word it always was.
Let it be spoken without effort.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was;
there is absolutely unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of your mind
because I am out of your sight?
I am but waiting for you, for an interval,
somewhere very near just around the corner,
All is well. Nothing is past, nothing is lost.

One brief moment and all will be as it was before,
only better, infinitely happier
and forever we will be one together.

DO NOT WEEP!


Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you wake in the morning hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there, I did not die!

Very rythmic, almost song-like. Like something Chinua Achebe would write if he wrote poetry. (Does he?) Anyway, if these are original lines from your ink, I say kudos. . But why do two poems on death? Sweet, yet gloomy. I like it.

What if you slept ?

And what if,
In your sleep
You dreamed ?

And what if,
In your dream,
You went to heaven
And there plucked
A strange and
Beautiful flower ?


And what if,
When you awoke,
You had the flower in your hand ?

, Ah, what then?

Haunting.

I guess that was the desired effect. It worked.

Great lines, lady. Can you get a brother some?