| DEATH - The Dying | AFTER DEATH - Eternity | In Once-Was Legacy |
| Do not die | I sit upon a chair.... | Once upon a time |
| until you are dead. | An antique piece | And not that long ago |
| Dying is in us all | It will be here | Yet it is |
| yet we live on. | Long after I am gone | Once upon a time |
| | And carry the ghost | When the world |
| Do not call for Death | Of who I was. | Opened into fields of green |
| And wait for him | Did a young man first sit | All newly green and leafy, |
| But live till he calls upon you. | Upon this seat? | Ideals fired us all |
| Be not afraid | Wishing to set sail | Devotion was our call |
| Pain unbearable | To some strange land | And a better world to come |
| Is still being alive. | Than to be safely home? | Gave us hope. |
| Pain will pass | And why should you, a chair | Orwell's world was fantasy. |
| As will our life | Outlive my life? | No sacrifice |
| Too soon.....too soon. | And so many lives before. | No special act |
| Tread firmly on the ground | | It was how it was |
| Each step endure | Yet you once lived | And art grew |
| And so enter | Your bark grew thick and tough | From nurtured roots. |
| The new world | As it spread upward, outward | |
| Still to come. | Aged with time. | The leaves are withering |
| The life force left behind | Your roots dug deeply into earth | The spirit fails |
| Is yet unknown. | Each year fuller....stronger | We search for good |
| Walk firmly on the ground | And resurrecting with | As Orwell's world |
| Neither the bang nor the whimper | New born springly leaves, | Becomes reality. |
| Precedes the end. | Filling sap in the veins | Look to new worlds |
| Silence has strength | Of trunk and branch. | Opening into fields of brown |
| To strike the air | Someone struck your life | Worn by time. |
| And bend the wind | Into lifeless form. | Fallow ground grows fresher crop. |
| Whispering unsounded sounds. | And now you live on....and on. | Keep tilling the soil |
| | Would there be life in you | When I am gone |
| Do not die | Were you still a tree? | Let them know |
| until you are dead. | | How it was |
| Dying is in us all | | How it still may be. |
| yet we live on. | | Light my candle |
| | | Lead the way. |
| | | The narrow climb |
| | | Illuminates a few |
| | | But there is hope. |
| | | The unlit candle |
| | | Leaves only darkness behind. |
| | | |
| Death's Circle | Recall in Retrospect | Departed Spirit |
| They say...it has come to an end. | The joy of recall | I heard you entering the room |
| But is there an end | To conjure shared moments past | I could not see |
| To a circle? | Now....the of now...moving the past | I felt your presence all around |
| Is it a circle? | To this moment. | Yet I could not see |
| Or is it the end? | I heard....I saw today | You were everywhere |
| And if it is the end | The passions once felt | And still I could not see. |
| Is it a straight line? | The revelations....of love....of soul | |
| Or line that swerves? | Brought to a pulsating beat | My eyes gazed on open space |
| Running circles within itself | In a souless world. | I could not see |
| Making straight lines curvaceous? | But for you | I felt the displaced air |
| | My recall could not | Refilling itself |
| And so...it has come to some end. | Bless the greatness | With an energy |
| Is not the action | Of earth and sky | Yet you were not there. |
| Or the meaning | Of sea and sand | |
| Of the end, the end? | Of sunrise and sunset | Is the presence felt |
| One does not die | Only you, long gone, | A ghost or a mirage? |
| All at once. | Can still make | Or life in another being? |
| Dying comes in stages | The recall a joy. | It was you I felt |
| When the brain desists. | | And now I weep |
| When it haltingly stops | | For what once was. |
| Then death is on call. | |
| Not all at once | |
| But from place to place. | |
| When is the moment of death? | |
| Who knows the moment | |
| Of death as it travels. | |
| It did not die at once | |
| The dying came in stages | |
| On an unmapped journey. | |
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| The Mystery of the End | Passing of Friendship - Christmas 2011 | Face of Love |
| The pathways long, the end is near | The measure of friendship remains unscaled | I saw the face |
| To you my friend… please lend an ear | It’s not a tool to be lightly hailed | The face of him I loved |
| The drizzle of rain, the patter of dew, | It needs the feeding of loving care | And love |
| The chattering leaves, the flowering few | To share the laughing and despair | I saw the face |
| The bending of bows, the belly of hills | To be aware of someone dear | Again and again. |
| The magic of life that always thrills. | To turn the path away from fear | Distant and in a stranger. |
| Then change to the rolling green | It’s not a mile to walk to them | Stranger stay with me |
| And see the end of what has been | But leaping steps that are quite near | Stranger you may be |
| In the grasping hand of man’s loot. | Just like a two-way walk affair. | But how like his face |
| He the wind but I the root. | Time itself will bless its birth | Which I can see |
| He travels far in restless pursuit | Time alone will prove its worth | Within the stranger |
| Over many lands of honey and fruit | So if I sadly say goodbye | Whose face belongs to me. |
| While I dig deep into solid earth | Time itself has passed us by. |
| Planting seeds for constant birth |
| Travelling in my mind’s eye. |
| You need the root to fly the sky. |
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| Death..and Passing of Friends | Departed Birthdays | Death in War |
| The measure of friendship remains unscaled | Do not count the death days gone | Gently into the night… |
| It’s not a tool to be lightly hailed | Of friends through many years | The days have passed |
| It needs the feeding of loving care | Remember the days of happy youth | Where deep commitment |
| To share the laughing and despair | And those through wisdom's tears. | One had hoped would last. |
| To be aware of someone dear | Each birthday was another climb | Years come, Years go |
| To turn the path away from fear | To where we wanted to be | As hollow death cries out for more |
| It’s not a mile to walk, but near | And so we share a million steps | Humans die or grow old |
| With leaping steps a two-way affair. | To our eternity. | But it’s Time itself that wages war |
| Time itself will bless its birth | | And all the days and nights grow cold. |
| Time alone will prove its worth |
| So if one sadly says goodbye |
| Time itself will pass us by. |
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| The Stranger | The Grieving Heart |
| Welcome home from where you came | Hearts do not break though we feel they do |
| You may have changed in form, | Love itself will see you through |
| Yet I will know just who you are | Don't bury the spirit, don't weep for the soul |
| A soul against the storm. | But breathe into it to make you whole. |
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