Poem Found in My Mom's Dresser

[justme2007]

[My mother was inurned this morning. The sun was shining very brightly at that time. Now it is overcast. I like to think it was her spirit shining down on us to say hello!]

"Death is Nothing At All"

I have only slipped away into

the next room.

I am I, and you are you.

Whatever we were to each other,

that we are still.

Call me by the old familiar name.

Speak of me in the easy way

which you always used.

Put no difference into your tone.

Wear no forced solemnity

or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed

At the little jokes that we

enjoyed together.

Play, smile, think of me,

pray for me.

Let my name be ever the

household word that it always was.

Let it be spoken without an effort,

Without the ghost of a

shadow upon it.

Life means all that it ever meant.

It is the same as it ever was.

There is absolute and

unbroken continuity.

What is this death but a

negligible accident?

Why should I be out of mind

because I am out of sight?

I am but waiting for you,

for an interval,

Somewhere very near,

Just round the corner.

All is well.

- Henry Scott Holland (19th century poet)

[brsarah]

Thank you so much for posting the poems you found in your mother's dressor. I just lost my mom on Jan. 2nd to lung cancer and am feeling the pain very badly today. I was just saying to my husband that I am so sad becuase it is so vacant, I can see or feel her and it hurts. These poems are very uplifting.

Thank you. Sarah