Death is nothing
at all.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I, and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other, that we still are.
Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way you always
used
Wear no forced air
of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me.
Let my name be ever
the household word that it always was.
Life means all that it ever meant.
There is absolutely unbroken continuity....
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight.
I am waiting for you.....
for an interval....
somewhere near,
just around the corner.
All is well.
Henry Scott Holland
When
somebody dies, a cloud turns into an angel,
And flies up to tell God to put another flower on a pillow.
A bird gives the message back to the world,
And sings a silent prayer that makes the rain cry.
People disappear, but they never really go away.
The spirits up there put the sun to bed,
Wake up the grass and spin the earth in dizzy circles.
Sometimes you can see them dancing in a cloud during the daytime,
When they're supposed to be sleeping.
They paint the rainbows and also the sunsets
And make waves splash and tug at the tide.
They toss shooting stars and listen to wishes.
And when they sing wind-songs, they whisper to us,
"Don't miss me too much, the view is nice and I'm doing just
fine.”
What
is dying?
A ship sails and
I stand watching till she fades on the horizon and someone at my side
says
“She is gone”
Gone where?
Gone from my sight, that is all;
She is just as large as when I saw her.
The diminished size and total
loss of sight is in me, not in her
And just at the moment when someone at my side says, “She is
gone”,
There are others who are watching her coming and other voices take
up a glad shout,
“There she comes!”
And
that is dying.
Kevin Mayhew
If
I should go before the rest of you
Break not a flower
Nor inscribe a stone
Nor when I am gone
Speak in a Sunday voice
But be the usual selves
That I have known
Weep if you must
Parting is hell
But life goes on
So .... sing as well
Joyce Grenfell
1910-1979
