NAY DO NOT GRIEVE
Nay, do not grieve though life be full of sadness,
Dawn will not veil its splendor for your grief,
Nor spring deny their bright appointed beauty
To lotus
blossom and ashoka leaf.
Nay, do not pine though life be marred with trouble,
Time will not pause or
tary on its way;
Today that seems so long, so strange, so bitter,
Will soon be some forgotten yesterday.
Nay, do not weep; new hopes, new dreams, new faces,
Joy yet unspent of all the unborn years,
Will prove your heart a traitor to its sorrow
And make your eyes unfaithful to their tears.
Sarojini Naidu
THE VISIT
Grandmother, I dreamed of you again--
I burned the sage you
Sent when I was in
Vietnam,
Before you died--
And I could not come home.
Beside the bed is the Spruce Bough
To keep the nightmares away.
Today I will visit you beside
Our Stream--at Arrow.
I will sprinkle tobacco on waters;
They will thank me.
Grandmother, let's visit--
Talk and laugh when
Sun is shining;
So I may sleep, rest at night.
Phil George
(Two Swans Ascending from Still Waters)
I CANNOT THINK OF THEM AS DEAD
I cannot think of them as dead who walk with me no more;
Along the path of life I tread they are but gone before,
they are but gone before.
And still their silent ministry within my heart has place
As when on earth they walked with me and met me face to face,
And met me face to face.
Their lives are made forever mine; what they to me have been
Has left henceforth its seal and sign engraven deep within,
Engraven deep within.
Mine are they by an ownership nor time nor death can free;
For God has given to love to keep its own eternally,
Its own eternally.
Frederick Lucian Hosmer
TO THOSE I
LOVE
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 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 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.
Isla Paschal Richardson
Hold on to what is good
Even if it is
A handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe
Even if it is
A tree which stands by itself
Hold on to what you must do
Even if it is
A long way from here.
Hold on to my hand even when
I have gone away from you.
Nancy Wood