Death is nothing at all
By Harry Scott Holland, 1847-1918
Canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral London
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 which you always used.
Put no difference in your tone,
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Pray, smile, think of me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect,
Without trace of a shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was: there is an unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near,
just around the corner.
All is well.
Some day
by Frances Hackney (Australian poet) from “Kindle
Me a Star”
Some day
When they have pronounced me dead
You will weep
And long to contact me again.
Do not ask the wind for news of me.
He is a vagrant gossip and most
Unreliable
Do not search
Along the starry reaches
Of night’s milky stream.
I shall not be there:
Nor shall I lie deep hidden
In the secretive ocean.
But when your tears are dry
And grief is calm,
Be still awhile and listen,
Listen to your spirit’s silence.
Summon me softly,
And I shall rise
Intact and beautiful,
From the depths of your faithful heart –
My dwelling place
Until your life shall end.
To Those I Love
By Isla Paschal Richardson
If I should ever leave you,
Whom I love
To go along the silent way. . .
Grieve not.
Nor speak of me with tears.
But laugh and talk of me
As if I were beside you there.
(I’d come . . . I’d come,
Could I but find a way!
But would not tears and
And grief be barriers?)
And when you hear a song
Or see a bird I loved,
Please do not let the thought of me
Be sad. . .for I am loving you
Just as I always have. . .
You were so good to me!
There are so many things
I wanted still to do. . .
So many things I wanted to say
to you. . . Remember that
I did not fear. . . It was
Just leaving you
That was so hard to face.
We cannot see beyond. . .
But this I know:
I loved you so. . .
’twas heaven here with you
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