Sacred Poems and Anthems
Contents Updated: Friday, July 14, 2000
Death is a clean bold word with no second meaning.
Death is a clean bold word with no second meaning.
Death means an end. By sight, by touch, temperature we know.
Do not insult this strong word with a weak evasion
And say, ’He has gone on’—’He passed away’—’He sleeps.’
Speak not of the body and its lively grace
As paltry things that never mattered after all,
Creative hands and giving hands, hands calloused and deformed
As being nothing now but broken tools.
Or if you must believe that when the light went out
Of eyes you loved and they stared back and told you nothing,
For that was all that could be told forever,
Salute Death. He demands you shall attain
Your fullest strength of honesty and courage.
You shall not bear your sorrow’s weight upon a crutch of words,
You will stand straight, nor say your lover, friend, your child
Has gone as though he’d wandered off somewhere,
But speak with dignity and say, ’He died.’
Rebecca Richmond
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