| If you where Dying, At your funeral...
Posted: 1/21/2008 3:54:46 PM | Which poem would you want recited in your honor?
Here's my request...
Asleep.
As far from pity as complaint,
As cool to speech as stone,
As numb to revelation
As if my trade were bone.
As far from time as history,
As near yourself to-day
As children to the rainbow's scarf,
Or sunset's yellow play
To eyelids in the sepulchre.
How still the dancer lies,
While color's revelations break,
And blaze the butterflies!
Emily Dickinson,
(1830 – 1886) | |
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| If you where Dying, At your funeral...
Posted: 1/21/2008 3:55:39 PM | Because I could not stop for Death
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labour, and my leisure too,
For his civility.
We passed the school where children played,
Their lessons scarcely done;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.
We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then 'tis centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.
Emily Dickinson,
(1830 – 1886) | |
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| If you where Dying, At your funeral...
Posted: 1/21/2008 7:29:00 PM |  Dear J. , what a tremendous thought, to put into the mind! Hopefully to think on..........until our end of time! Today , I would say I like this gentle , strong prose!
Subject to change ...as I read more of the words our most beloved Poets! 
Death
"When the souls rise in the
light of their joy, my soul ascends glorified by the
dark of grief.
I am like you, Night! And when my morn comes, then
my time will end."
Kahil Gibran "THE PROPHET"
Partly autobiographical book of 26 poetic essays, which has been translated into over 20 languages. The Prophet, who has lived in a foreign city 12 years, is about to board a ship that will take him home. He is stopped by a group of people, whom he teaches the mysteries of life. The resulting 26 sermons are meant to emancipate the listeners. In the 1960s The Prophet became a counterculture guide and in the 1980s the message of spiritualism overcoming material success was adopted by Yuppies. Critics have not treated the book well. Its mystical poetry is frequently read at weddings even today. Gibran's other popular books include THE EARTH GODS (1931), a dialogue in free verse between three titans on the human destiny.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Sing and dance together and be joyous,
but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone
though they quiver with the same music.
(from The Prophet: Marriage)
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| If you where Dying, At your funeral...
Posted: 1/21/2008 7:39:46 PM | Not sure how death and funerals became entangled with a quote on marriage...but well....I guess some marriages do have similarities to death and funerals
Gibran spoke of life and death very eloquently and saw the two as one. One as the both.
Than Almitra spoke, saying, "We would ask now of Death."
And he said:
You would know the secret of death.
But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.
If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.
In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;
And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.
Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.
Is the sheered not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king?
Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?
For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
And what is to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?
Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance. | |
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| If you where Dying, At your funeral...
Posted: 1/21/2008 7:55:24 PM | | Apparently............they do! You were married once ...weren't you? Geuss life and death should include how we lived it.........alone? Or with one we LOVE! | |
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| If you where Dying, At your funeral...
Posted: 1/21/2008 8:11:45 PM | We arrive alone
We leave alone
In between we can sure screw things up? 
Actually I think Gibran has a lot of good things to say. Great bringing him on over.
It was just really odd to see a marriage advice quote in a funeral thread.
I guess that was a stupid comment I made on a site full of husband hunters eh!
Its all good :)
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| If you where Dying, At your funeral...
Posted: 1/21/2008 8:12:30 PM | Thank you! Good words..........may they find you somewhere ....here!
Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. | |
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| If you where Dying, At your funeral...
Posted: 1/21/2008 8:37:18 PM | as gentle as that felt breeze
as suttle as rain seeps in
as fall leaves first drift into mother earths embrace
I say to you
silent allow me to fade away
dignity intact remember when
smile remember when
and please tell
THE Government to finally let me rest
in Peace
Taxes rest Ipay No more :)! | |
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| If you where Dying, At your funeral...
Posted: 1/21/2008 8:46:30 PM | seldom the river of silence brings song,music the words we share indeed sing!
mountain tops are reached not only in climb but that in spirit shared
Best words ever written... I Love you Dad...I :)èd still do to this day
all else are second best ... I reached My mountain and i DID smile :) | |
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| If you where Dying, At your funeral...
Posted: 1/21/2008 9:01:31 PM |
Throw my body in the forest
Let the creatures have a feed
For it might as well serve a purpose
When I'm dead, no body I need
Lovely thought...........................!!!!!!!!!! | |
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| If you where Dying, At your funeral...
Posted: 1/21/2008 9:03:11 PM | Hiya NW! I liked the selections you picked to start this great new thread off... Emily Dickinson has always been one of my favs especially the 2nd one you listed =) Here is one that I didn't write but has always stuck with me... perhaps it might work for my funeral... who knows... ~Caly
My prime of youth is but a frost of cares,
My feast of joy is but a dish of pain,
My crop of corn is but a field of tares,
And all my good is but vain hope of gain;
The day is past, and yet I saw no sun,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
My tale was heard and yet it was not told,
My fruit is fallen, and yet my leaves are green,
My youth is spent and yet I am not old,
I saw the world and yet I was not seen;
My thread is cut and yet it is not spun,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
I sought my death and found it in my womb,
I looked for life and saw it was a shade,
I trod the earth and knew it was my tomb,
And now I die, and now I was but made;
My glass is full, and now my glass is run,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
Chidiock Tichborne
1558–1586 | |
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| If you where Dying, At your funeral...
Posted: 1/21/2008 9:09:45 PM | Remember
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you planned:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
~ Christina Georgina Rossetti | |
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| If you where Dying, At your funeral...
Posted: 1/21/2008 9:43:14 PM | | Death should not be feared....it is our reward after a long life of participation and experiencing.....we get to go home.......and create without the heaviness and limitations that life in a body creates. | |
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| If you where Dying, At your funeral...
Posted: 1/21/2008 9:53:19 PM | Awesome writes. Submitted is a poem that my Father used to recite, alas, author unknown:
If with pleasure you are viewing
Anything a person's doing
If you like 'em
Or you love 'em
Tell 'em now!
Do not wait 'till life is over
An' they lie beneath the clover
They will not know how many teardrops you have shed
For no one reads their tombstone when they're dead.
Worth more than fame an' more than money
Is that comment bright and sunny
Of the heart felt warm approval of a friend.
So if ya' think some credit is due 'em
Now's the time to slip it to 'em
For no one reads their tombstone when they're dead.
Author Unknown. | |
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| If you where Dying, At your funeral...
Posted: 1/21/2008 10:24:41 PM | A poem huh? Ive never really thought about it, but whenever Ive needed to read something profound and insightful I always go to my good friend John Keats. His poem "To Sleep" sounds most apt to my ears.
==========
To Sleep
O soft embalmer of the still midnight!
Shutting with careful fingers and benign
Our gloom-pleased eyes, embower'd from the light,
Enshaded in forgetfulness divine;
O soothest Sleep! if so it please thee, close,
In midst of this thine hymn, my willing eyes,
Or wait the amen, ere thy poppy throws
Around my bed its lulling charities;
Then save me, or the passèd day will shine
Upon my pillow, breeding many woes;
Save me from curious conscience, that still lords
Its strength for darkness, burrowing like a mole;
Turn the key deftly in the oilèd wards,
And seal the hushèd casket of my soul.
==========
Also, on my headstone Id like it to read
"Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop."
Which is a quote by Lewis Carrol as Im sure some of you know. | |
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| If you where Dying, At your funeral...
Posted: 1/21/2008 10:37:45 PM | by W. H. Auden
Vintage
I
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crêpe bows round the white necks of the public
doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
II
O the valley in the summer where I and my John
Beside the deep river would walk on and on
While the flowers at our feet and the birds up above
Argued so sweetly on reciprocal love,
And I leaned on his shoulder; 'O Johnny, let's play':
But he frowned like thunder and he went away.
O that Friday near Christmas as I well recall
When we went to the Charity Matinee Ball,
The floor was so smooth and the band was so loud
And Johnny so handsome I felt so proud;
'Squeeze me tighter, dear Johnny, let's dance till it's day':
But he frowned like thunder and he went away.
Shall I ever forget at the Grand Opera
When music poured out of each wonderful star?
Diamonds and pearls they hung dazzling down
Over each silver and golden silk gown;
'O John I'm in heaven,' I whispered to say:
But he frowned like thunder and he went away.
O but he was fair as a garden in flower,
As slender and tall as the great Eiffel Tower,
When the waltz throbbed out on the long promenade
O his eyes and his smile they went straight to my heart;
'O marry me, Johnny, I'll love and obey':
But he frowned like thunder and he went away.
O last night I dreamed of you, Johnny, my lover,
You'd the sun on one arm and the moon on the other,
The sea it was blue and the grass it was green,
Every star rattled a round tambourine;
Ten thousand miles deep in a pit there I lay:
But you frowned like thunder and you went away. | |
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| If you where Dying, At your funeral...
Posted: 1/21/2008 10:39:53 PM | A Spiritual Journey
by Faye Kilday
Life is a spiritual journey from
the first day of our birth,
Life is a spiritual journey on this
beautiful planet called earth.
Life is a spiritual journey -
we're here to learn all we can,
Life is a spiritual journey -
a special gift from God to man. | |
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| If you where Dying, At your funeral...
Posted: 1/21/2008 10:43:32 PM | | "I waited alone, in the company of orchids, roses and violets who—like people waiting beside you, but to whom you are unknown—maintained a silence which their individuality of living things rendered more imposing and in their chilly manner received the heat from an incandescent coal fire, preciously placed behind a crystal glass, in a white marble tub where it dropped, from time to time, its dangerous rubies." Marcel Proust | |
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