At a Grave

They who stand with breaking hearts around this [little] grave, need have no fear. The larger and the nobler faith in all that is, and is to be, tells us that death, even at its worst, is only perfect rest. We know that through the common wants of life—the needs and duties of each hour—their grief will lessen day by day, until at last this grave will be to them a place of rest and peace—almost of joy. There is for them this consolation: The dead do not suffer. If they live again, their lives will surely be as good as ours. We have no fear. We are all children of the same mother, and the same fate awaits us all. We, too, have our religion [belief], and it is this:
Help for the living—Hope for the dead.

-- Robert G. Ingersoll, adapted

Evening

The snail gives off stillness.
The weed is blessed.
At the end of a long day
The man finds joy, the water peace.

Let all be simple. Let all stand still
Without a final direction.
That which brings you into the world
To take you away at death
Is one and the same;
The shadow long and pointy
Is its church.

At night some understand what the grass says.
The grass knows a word or two.
It is not much. It repeats the same word
Again and again, but not too loudly.

-- Charles Simic

BurialAmy CunninghamJuly 22, 2017Final Resting Place

Requiem

Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie:
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you, 'grave for me:
Here he lies where he long'd to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.

-- Robert Louis Stevenson

BurialAmy CunninghamJuly 22, 2017Final Resting Place

Come to the Meadow to Visit Me

Come to the meadow to visit me
Down by the roots of a tree
Waste not your tears on the stone cold graves
Water a flower for me
Give me to the earth when my winter comes
Bury me deep in the ground
Mark not my place with statues or caves
Find me where life can be found
Visit a garden on warm, summer days
Keep company with blossoms and bees
Remember my heart blooms forever in yours
Take comfort from shushing shade trees
Let autumn surround you with life and the living
Birdsong and aging green leaves
Look up at the sky, give thanks for sun and rain
When you think of me, smile more than grieve
Come to the forest to visit me
Down by the roots of a tree
Live every day that is given to you
Water a new flower for me.

-- adapted from a poem by Lurana Brown

BurialAmy CunninghamJuly 21, 2017Final Resting Place

Into the Darkness

Into the darkness and warmth of the earth
We lay you down
Into the sadness and smiles of our memories
We lay you down
Into the cycle of living and dying and rising again
We lay you down
May you rest in peace, in fulfilment, in loving
May you run straight home in Earth’s embrace

-- Ruth Burgess

BurialAmy CunninghamJuly 21, 2017Final Resting Place

From "Adonais"

He is made one with Nature: there is heard
His voice in all her music, from the moan
Of thunder, to the song of night’s sweet bird;
He is a presence to be felt and known
In darkness and in light, from herb and stone,
Spreading itself where’er that Power may move
Which has withdrawn his being to its own;
Which wields the world with never-wearied love,
Sustains it from beneath, and kindles it above.

-- Percy Bysshe Shelley

BurialAmy CunninghamJuly 21, 2017Final Resting Place