Poem for funeral

[Wavyshake]

My brother died earlier this week. He was only in his 30s, unexpected. I want to try and read a poem at his funeral, nothing massively wordy, not overly religious just something that I’m not going to massively crumble over.

I really liked ‘if tomorrow starts without me’ but it’s quite long and not sure I’d make it through the whole thing. I could take verses and read them but I wouldn’t know which ones to take out and leave in…

Any ideas would be welcomed.

I'm so sorry for the loss of your brother.

What about 'Do not stand at my grave and weep' by Mary Elizabeth Frye?

Sending you strength xx

http://www.funeralchoices.co.uk/Poems/god%20sends%20his%20love.html

God sends his love is a beautiful poem. It’s not as religious as the title may suggest and you can take out as many verses as you like.
So sorry for your loss, you are very brave.

It's not a poem but I found a quote on grief which really struck a chord with me after 2 close bereavements recently.

Grief is really just love
It's all the love you want to give but cannot.
All of that unspent love,
gathers in the corner of your eyes,
the lump in your throat
and in the hollow part of your chest.
Grief is just love with no place to go.

A friend read The Lake Isle of Innisfree by W B Yeats at his Dad's funeral, and many people said how it had comforted them.

It isn't religious at all, but is about finding peace and calm, and about the natural circle of life.
It's quite a short poem, and Yeats wrote his poetry to be read aloud, so it's got a flowing rhythm making it easy to read.

I'm so sorry you've lost your brother, that must be very hard to bear.

I love this. Thank you.

Thanks for all the replies, really thoughtful. Am going to spend the weekend reading through them.

not sure how I’ll ever learn to cope with his loss but somehow I will.

@Wavyshake I am so sorry for your loss ❤

I'm sorry for your loss💐

Crossing the Bar, Alfred Tennyson. Very lovely, not religious. Sending you strength.

I'm so sorry to hear about your brother, so young to be gone. I love this one, it was read out at my 9 year old nephew's funeral. I'm not sure who it is by. There is a first bit, but it mentions god. That bit wasn't read out at the funeral because it was a very non-religious service. As an atheist, I think it is fine without it.

People disappear, but they never really go away.
The spirits up there put the sun to bed, wake up the grass, and spin the earth in dizzy circles.
Sometimes you can see them dancing in a cloud during the daytime when they're supposed to be sleeping.
They paint the rainbows and also the sunsets and make waves splash and tug at the tide.
They toss shooting stars and listen to wishes.
And when they sing wind songs, they whisper to us "Don't miss me too much, the view is nice, and I'm doing just fine."

Sorry for your loss. I found poems by Donna Ashworth helpful for both readings and assisting me in my grief. She has books but also a good number are accessible on her website or social media pages.

I have sent you one via message @Wavyshake didnt want to share it publicly for personal reasons.
Sending you so many condolences.

I like this one.

www.thefuneralpoem.com/10/famous-poets-poems/henry-scott-holland/27/death-is-nothing-at-all-death-poetry-verses?paid=13

It's about the person being in another room.

Sorry for your loss.

This is the wrong gender but you could change it? I really love this. I’m so, so sorry for your loss. X

Sorry, that didn’t work. Hopefully this will.

‘Darling’
You might forget the exact sound of her voice
Or how her face looked when sleeping.
You might forget the sound of her quiet weeping
Curled into the shape of a half moon,
When smaller than her self, she seemed already to be leaving
Before she left, when the blossom was on the trees
And the sun was out, and all seemed good in the world.
I held her hand and sang a song from when I was a girl –
Heil Ya Ho Boys, Let her go Boys
And when I stopped singing she had slipped away,
Already a slip of a girl again, skipping off,
Her heart light, her face almost smiling.
And what I didn’t know, or couldn’t see then,
Was that she hadn’t really gone.
The dead don’t go till you do, loved ones.
The dead are still here holding our hands.
Copyright Jackie Kay. Reprinted with kind permission from the author.

sorry for your loss. I’ve done a couple of poems at funerals and have focused on choosing something connected to the person I’ve lost rather than about grief. I picked a poem about gardening for my gran and a poem by my father’s favourite author for his.
good luck. X

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/so-many-different-lengths-of-time/

try this OP

I love this too, thought it’s quite angry and bleak. Not to everyone’s taste.

Dirge Without Music
BY EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY
I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.

Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains,—but the best is lost.

The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,—
They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.

I’m so sorry for your loss.

I recently read The Loom of Time at my uncle’s funeral. Many commented on what a fitting poem it was.

https://www.poetseers.org/the-great-poets/misc-2/the-loom-of-time/

I love this Irish blessing, it’s short but beautiful. There is a mention of God, but it’s not the focus. (Apologies for the random bold bit)
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.”

Epitaph by Merrit Malloy