Request

[3butterflies.livejournal.com]

Hi.

We've just had a loss in my extended family. Can anyone post any beautiful poems about death? Not any too religious or too sappy?

**EDIT: This had turned out to be a beautiful thread. Thank you for all of your kind words.

Comments

[lifeisacabaret.livejournal.com]

I am sorry for you loss, here are some of my faves:

Requiescat by Oscar Wilde

TREAD lightly, she is near
Under the snow,
Speak gently, she can hear
The daisies grow.

All her bright golden hair
Tarnished with rust,
She that was young and fair
Fallen to dust.

Lily-like, white as snow,
She hardly knew
She was a woman, so
Sweetly she grew.

Coffin-board, heavy stone,
Lie on her breast;
I vex my heart alone,
She is at rest.

Peace, peace; she cannot hear
Lyre or sonnet;
All my life's buried here,
Heap earth upon it.


and:

Poem by Langston Hughes

I loved my friend.
He went away from me.
There's nothing more to say.
The poem ends
Soft as it began-
I loved my friend.

[lifeisacabaret.livejournal.com]

A fave of mine is also:

Lament by Edna St Vincent Millay

Listen, children,
Your father is dead.
From his old coats
I'll make you little jackets;
I'll make you little trousers
From his old pants.
There'll be in his pockets
Things he used to put there:
Keys and pennies
Covered with tobacco.
Dan shall have the pennies
To save in his bank;
Anne shall have the keys
To make a pretty noise with.
Life must go on
And the dead be forgotten;
Life must go on
Though good men die.
Anne, eat your breakfast;
Dan, take your medicine.
Life must go on;
I forget just why.

[3butterflies.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[wildflowerfever.livejournal.com]

"Your father is dead.
From his old coats
I'll make you little jackets;
I'll make you little trousers
From his old pants."

Oh... that's lovely.

[andhowever.livejournal.com]

Oh, that Langston Hughes one is wrenching. He's so great.

[bloodrebel333.livejournal.com]

Lovely.