Sometimes as a antidote
To fear of death,
I eat the stars.
Those nights, lying on my back,
I suck them from the quenching dark
Till they are all, all inside me,
Pepper hot and sharp.
Sometimes, instead, I stir myself
Into a universe still young,
Still warm as blood:
No outer space, just space,
The light of all the not yet stars
Drifting like a bright mist,
And all of us, and everything
Already there
But unconstrained by form.
And sometimes it’s enough
To lie down here on earth
Beside our long ancestral bones:
To walk across the cobble fields
Of our discarded skulls,
Each like a treasure, like a chrysalis,
Thinking: whatever left these husks
Flew off on bright wings.
-- Rebecca Elson
No-one has marked out the road
you are to take
out in the unknown
out in the blue.
This is your road.
Only you
will take it. And there's no
turning back.
And you haven't marked your road
either.
And the wind smoothes out your tracks
on desolate hills.
-- Olav Hauge
What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments,
but what is woven into the lives of others.
-- Pericles
Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, in answer to a TIME magazine reader, who asked, “What is
the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?” said this:
“When I look up at the night sky and I know that, yes, we are part of this Universe, we are in
this Universe, but perhaps more important than most of those facts is that the Universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, I look up — many people feel small, because they’re small, the
Universe is big — but I feel big, because my atoms came from those stars. There’s a level of
connectivity — that’s really what you want in life. You want to feel connected, you want to feel
relevant. You want to feel like you’re a participant in the goings on and activities and events
around you. That’s precisely what we are, just by being alive.”
-- Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Read MoreI lay my head to rest
and in doing so
lay at your feet
the faces I have seen
the voices I have heard
the words I have spoken
the hands I have shaken
the service I have given
the joys I have shared
the sorrows revealed.
I lay them at your feet
and in doing so
lay my head to rest
And You Held Me
and you held me and there were no words
and there was no time and you held me
and there was only wanting and
being held and being filled with wanting
and I was nothing but letting go
and being held
and there were no words and there
needed to be no words
and there was no terror only stillness
and I was wanting nothing and
it was fullness and it was like aching for God
and it was touch and warmth and
darkness and no time and no words and we flowed
and I flowed and I was not empty
and I was given up to the dark and
in the darkness I was not lost
and the wanting was like fullness and I could
hardly hold it and I was held and
you were dark and warm and without time and
without words and you held me.
--J anet Morley
I have opened unto you, the fate of my being
And like a tide, you have flowed into me.
All the channels of my spirit and the recesses of my soul
Are grown sweet with your presence
You have brought me the calm of great tranquil waters
And the quiet of summer seas
Your hands are filled with peace as the Moon tide
Is filled with light
About your head is bound the eternal quiet of the stars
And in your heart dwells the gentleness of dusk
I am clear and still
For I have opened unto you the wide gates of my being
And like a tide, you have flowed into me.
-- Adapted with abandon from Eunice Tietjens by Kim Farley
Pippin said: ‘I didn't think it would end this way.’
‘End?’ said Gandalf. ‘No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path... one that we
all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back,
And all turns to silver glass...
And then you see it.’
‘What?’ Said Pippin, ‘Gandalf?... See what?
‘ White shores... and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.’
‘Well,’ said Pippin smiling, ‘that isn't so bad.’
‘No’... replied Gandalf softly. ‘No it isn't.’
-- JRR Tolkein
I give thanks to those that I am about to invite!
I ask that this room, this home or building and the grounds become a sacred space.
I invite the Divine to be present.
I invite Great Spirit, Mother Father God to be present.
I invite Great Mystery to be present.
I invite the Compassionate and loving Ancestors to be present and I give thanks to them,
because without them we couldn't be here.
I invite the Great Teachers and Masters to be present, especially those that we have
connections to and affiliations with.
I invite the Angels, the great beings of light, especially the Archangels, the guardian angels
angels of love and the angels of healing.
I invite the Power Animals, the Totems, and I give thanks to them for loaning their power, their
qualities, their protection and for relationship.
I invite the Healing Spirits of all the realms and give thanks for the healing that I know is going
to happen.
I invite the Elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Sacred Space...and I ask for a balancing and
harmonizing of the Elements.
I invite the Compassionate Spirits and Devas.
I Invite the Earth, the Sun and the Moon.
I give thanks to the Stars and the Compassionate Star People.
I invite the Directions and the Guardians of the Directions
I invite the Four Great Winds.
I give thanks to the Great Spirits of the Land and I ask to be in harmony with you and to prosper
here.
I give thanks to the Spirits of this place for allowing this work and this prayer to happen here in
a good way.
And as always, I give thanks in advance for the blessings that I know will happen here.
Thank you!
-- Betsy Bergstrom
The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.
Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too.
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.
Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.
-- Philip Larkin
May all the ancestors join forces to wake up our spirits
and put good thoughts into our psyches:
Then we shall see the good that awaits us and accept it.
Ashe – May it Be So
-- Unknown
Read MoreBefore the sublime mystery of life and spirit,
the mystery of infinite space
and endless time, we stand in reverent awe . . .
This much we know:
we are at least one phase of the immortality of life.
The mighty stream of life flows on, and, in this mighty stream,
we too flow on . . .
not lost . . . but each eternally significant.
For this I feel: The spirit never betrays the person
who trusts it.
Physical life may be defeated but life goes on;
character survives,
goodness lives and love is immortal.
-- Robert G. Ingersoll
Read MoreThey 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
Read MoreAs sometimes in a dead one's face,
To those that watch it move and more,
A likeness, hardly seen before,
Comes out—to someone of the race.
So, dearest, now thy brows are cold,
I see thee what thou art, and know
Thy likeness to the wise below,
Thy kindred with the great of old.
But there is more than I can see,
And what I see I leave unsaid,
Nor speak it, knowing Death has made
All darkness beautiful with thee.
-- Lord Alfred Tennyson
Read More
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
Nights when it’s warm
and no one is watching,
I walk to the edge
of the road and stare
at all the fireflies.
I squint and pretend
they’re hallucinations,
bright made-up waves
of the brain.
I call them,
field bling.
I call them,
fancy creepies.
It’s been a long time
since I’ve wanted to die,
it makes me feel
like taking off
my skin suit
and seeing how
my light flies all
on its own, neon
and bouncy like a
wannabe star.
-- Ada Limon
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
Read MoreCome 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
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
Read More
Don’t just stand there with your hair turning gray,
Soon enough the seas will sink your little island
So while there is still the illusion of time,
Set out for another shore.
No sense packing a bag.
You won’t be able to lift it into your boat.
Give away all your collections.
Take only new seeds and an old stick.
Send out some prayers on the wind before you sail.
Don’t be afraid.
Someone knows you’re coming.
An extra fish has been salted.
-- Mona Santacroce
Read More