A memorial poem

[sykes]

Can anyone help with an appropriate poem for a sort of memorial. We lost 17 members of staff in September 11 and send a card every year to family members etc. Have left it horribly late this year and need an appropriate poem/verse - about four/six lines to print in the card. Nothing too sad, slightly uplifting but obviously appropriate to the fact that the people died. Also, not religious as not all were Christian etc. Thanks - I can't think of anything and any literary friends are not around. Shakespear's sonnets??

I do like the last verse. Thanks.

THEIR JOURNEY
Dont think of them as gone away,
Their journey's just begun.
Life holds so many facets,
This earth is only one.
Just think of them as resting
From the sorrow and the tears
In a place of warmth and comfort
Where there are no days or years.
Think how they must be wishing
That we could know today
How nothing but our sadness
Can really pass away.
And think of them as living
In the hearts of those they touched,
For nothing loved is ever lost
And they wereloved so much.
ANON

All lovely poems - but Jodee's made me think the most. Lovely words.

Im with Janh - the other is a little schmaltzy for my taste.

ALso I dont get these poems that say dont think of them as gone or death is nothing - It s a big deal!

coddy, I agree actually re "death is nothing" - it does sound a bit dismissive - although of course in the poem it isn't meant like that, and I do like the last bit about waiting just around the corner and all is well.

The middle bit reminds me of the Joyce Grenfell we had at my dad's funeral:

If I should go before the rest of you,
Break not a flower nor inscribe a stone.
Nor when I'm gone, speak in a Sunday voice,
But be the usual selves that I have known.
Weep if you must,
Parting is hell,
But Life Goes On,
So sing as well.

But that is possibly a bit flippant for 9/11 people.

I was really moved by that last verse from For the Fallen, I'd never come across it before.

There is this Rosetti poem too, sykes -

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

I don't think this is appropriate, and it's too long, but while we're adding favourite poems, this is mine (bear with it, it cheers up towards the end!):

The sunlight on the garden
Hardens and grows cold,
We cannot cage the minute
Within its nets of gold;
When all is told
We cannot beg for pardon.

Our freedom as free lances
Advances towards its end;
The earth compels, upon it
Sonnets and birds descend;
And soon, my friend,
We shall have no time for dances.

The sky was good for flying
Defying the church bells
And every evil iron
Siren and what it tells:
The earth compels,
We are dying, Egypt, dying

And not expecting pardon,
Hardened in heart anew,
But glad to have sat under
Thunder and rain with you,
And grateful too
For sunlight on the garden.

Louis Macneice.

I like that too.

am desperate to know which she chooses!!

Sorry - have to decide by 10:30 this morning and will let you know. Still confused and rather worried as REALLY want to get it right. Thanks to all - some really lovely poems etc.

In the end we chose the below. Not sure if it was the right thing to do and, sounds rather silly, but if you read it too quickly it sounds a bit twee - ie, last line. But I do like it's innocence and love the first three lines. Also, not religious. Thanks to everyone for their help and the lovely poems.

Do believe I'll never leave you
Always I'll be in your heart
Don't forget my soul is near you
And so we'll never be apart

=hmmmmmmmmmmmmm a bit rhymesy -but its a tough job sykesey

I know but we couldn't agree on anything else. It's so subjective. Not my favourite but the sentiment is there.

slightly off point but we read this at my gran's funeral and I love it, It's actually more about respecting the value of older generation but kind of relevant to this discussion

What then? Shall we sit idly down and say
The night hath come; it is no longer day?
SOmething remains for us to do, or dare;
Even the oldest tree some fruit may bear;
For age is opportunity no less
Than youth itself; though in another dress,
And as the evening twilight fades away
The sky is filled with stars invisible by day.

May not be exactly appropriate, but I love this and want it read at my funeral:

To a Young Child

Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you will weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for

Gerard Manley Hopkins

I know you've chosen now sykes, but this thread has got me thinking about all my favourite poems again. I can't resist posting this too, it's the last verse of Fern Hill by Dylan Thomas. The last two lines make the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end even now:

Nothing I cared, in the lamb white days, that time would take me
Up to the swallow thronged loft by the shadow of my hand,
In the moon that is always rising,
Nor that riding to sleep
I should hear him fly with the high fields
And wake to the farm forever fled from the childless land.
Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea