Should you go First
by A.K. Rowswell

Should you go first and I remain
to walk the road alone
I'll live in memory's garden, dear
with happy days we've known
in Spring I'll wait for roses red,
when fades the lilacs blue,
in early fall, when brown leaves call
I'll catch a glimpse of you
Should you go first, and I remain
for battles to be fought,
each thing you've touched along the way
will be a hallowed spot
I'll hear your voice;
I'll see your smile,
though blindly I may grope
the memory of your helping hand
will buoy me on with hope
Should you go first and I remain
to finish with the scroll,
no length'ning shadows ahall creep in
to make this life seem droll
We've known so much of happiness
we've had our cup of joy,
and memory is one gift of God
that death cannot destroy
Should you go first and I remain,
one thing I'd have you do;
walk slowly down that long, lone path,
for soon I'll follow you
I'll want to know each step you take
that I may walk the same,
for some day down that lonely road
you'll hear me call your name

 

Death is Nothing at All
by Canon Henry Scott-Holland

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 my old familiar name,
speak to me in the easy way
which you have always used to.
Put no difference in your tone,
wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Let my name be ever the household word
that it always was,
let it be spoken without effect,
without a trace of shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was;
there is unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval
somewhere very near,

just around the corner.

All is well.
Nothing is past; nothing is lost
One brief moment and all will be as it was before
How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!

Love Sonnets
by Pablo Neruda

When I die, I want your hands on my eyes:
I want the light and wheat of your beloved hands
To pass their freshness over me once more:
I want to feel the softness that changed my destiny. 

I want you to live while I wait for you, asleep. 
I want your ears still to hear the wind,
I want you to sniff the sea’s aroma that we loved together,
To continue to walk on the sand we walk on.

I want what I love to continue to live,
And you whom I love and sang above everything else
To continue to flourish, full-flowered;

So that you can reach everything my love directs you to,
So that my shadow can travel along in your hair,
So that everything can learn the reason for my song.

Those We Love Remain With Us
by Mary Alice Ramish

Those we love remain with us for love itself lives on, and cherished memories never fade because a loved one's gone. Those we love can never be more than a thought apart, far as long as there is memory, they'll live on in the heart.

Elegy for Your Absence
by H.R. Hays

In that moment you sailed for all of death
Into profound oceans of silence
With long hours of sleeping pupils,
And a flock of doves caught in your dreams.

Now you are already in distant moonlight,
More yourself than in the arrows of your golden clock
Where you reckoned such a shoreless moment
For the thirst of wings that was burning on your shoulders.

You shall have vaulted seas stared at by inquietude,
Abysses in the timid solitude of your absence;
And in the night you shall have been delicate warm breeze
Close to that crumb of our amorous earth.

Long embrace of breath over the poppies
And a laugh and a song without words or music;
With a "Here I am," glad of past wakefulness,
And a "forever" warm in the cool plain.

As you leave pressed in the arms of silence
The light of our words shall echo more clearly
And in each stanza of air an accent shall be entangled
And in each butterfly more wings shall be born to you.

Gladness of being alive for that eternal day,
Knowing yourself in the water, in the sun, and in the grass.
Among the clouds you shall make nativities of silver
And you shall discover your nest in a tree of stars.

If I Should Go
by Unknown Author

If I should go tomorrow
It would never be goodbye,
For I have left my heart with you,
So don’t you ever cry.
The love that’s deep within me,
Shall reach you from the stars,
You’ll feel it from the heavens,
And it will heal the scars.

We have Shared a Significant Moment
by Marie Alaimo

We have shared
A significant moment
With tears awash
Amidst the quiet Smiles
Your handclasp
There surging
We acknowledge
The love and the Life
With profound Expression
As we embrace
And remember
The exhilarating
Poignant living
Walking upon time
Now
With a silent kiss

You can Shed Tears or ...
by Unknown Author

You can shed tears that she is gone
or you can smile because she has lived
You can close your eyes and pray that she’ll come back
Or you can open your eyes and see all she’s left
Your heart can be empty because you can’t see her
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember her and only that she’s gone
or you can cherish her memory and let it live on
You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back
or you can do what she’d want:
smile,
open your eyes,
love
and go on.

After Glow
by Unknown Author

I'd like the memory of me
to be a happy one.
I'd like to leave an after glow
of smiles when life is done.
I'd like to leave an echo
whispering softly down the ways,
Of happy times and laughing times
and bright and sunny days.
I'd like the tears of those who grieve,
to dry before the sun
of happy memories
that I leave when life is done

Memories in the Heart
by Unknown Author

Feel no guilt in laughter, she knows how much you care
Feel no sorrow in a smile that she’s not here to share
You cannot grieve forever, she would not want you to
She’d hope that you can carry on, the way you always do
So talk about the good times and the ways you showed you cared
The days you spent together, all the happiness you shared
Let memories surround you.
A word someone may say
Will suddenly recapture a time, an hour, a day
That brings her back as clearly as though she were still here
And fills you with the feelings that she is always near
For if you keep these moments, you will never be apart
And she will live forever locked safe within your heart

A Silent Tear
by Gaynor Llewellyn

Just close your eyes and you will see
All the memories that you have of me
Just sit and relax and you will find
I'm really still there inside your mind
Don’t cry for me now I'm gone
For I am in the land of song
There is no pain, there is no fear
So dry away that silent tear
Don’t think of me in the dark and cold
For here I am, no longer old
I'm in that place that’s filled with love
Known to you all, as "UP ABOVE"

Funeral Poem
by Unknown Author

I thought of you with love today but that is nothing new
I thought about you yesterday and days before that too,
I think of you in silence I often speak your name
All I have are memories and your picture in a frame
Your memory is my keepsake with which I’ll never part
God has you in His keeping I have you in my heart.

I'll Miss You

I'll miss you tomorrow
When the toothpaste cap is on
I'll miss you tomorrow
When I must unlock the front door
I'll miss you tomorrow
When mine is the only reflection in the mirror
But I will celebrate today
The memories of you

Mom And I Are Dancing Once Again
This could be easily adapted to Dad and I Are Dancing Once Again.

by Richard John Scarr 
(Brighton ,East Sussex, England.)

The day your Mom was taken.
I felt my life had ceased to be.
For from the moment that we met,
she had been the world to me!

And although we had our ups and downs,
we somehow muddled through.
Because we had each other,
and we had you children too.

No one said it would be easy.
For wealth was never meant to be.
But we were rich in other ways.
A close knit loving family.

And your Mom and I. We loved to dance.
Although we didn't know, of course.
The last time we were on the floor,
would be the final Waltz.

She was taken much too early.
And I was left alone.
To finish what we'd started.
Until you kids had grown.

I knew your Mom was never far.
I often felt her presence there.
But knowing, yet unseeing,
was very hard to bear.

So day by day I missed her.
And though days turned into years.
Some things would still prod memories,
and reduce me into tears.

And with the years old age was sewn,
and took their toll of me.
Yet though you children saw and aged Dad.
Mum saw me as I used to be!

Now time has turned full circle.
And we are back again as one.
Exactly as we used to be,
when our journey first begun.

So if, from out of nowhere.
You sometimes think you here the strain.
Of a lilting Waltz or Tango.
You'll know we're dancing once again.

Memories of You
by Unknown

I remember everything about you, 
your voice, your smile, your touch, 
the way you walked, the way you talked, 
the way you looked at me, meant so much.

I remember all the words you said to me, 
some funny, some kind, some wise, 
all of the things you did for me, 
I see now with different eyes. 

I remember every moment we shared, 
seems like only yesterday, 
or maybe it was eons ago, 
It's really hard to say.

You are gone from me now, 
but one thing they can't take away, 
your memory resides inside my heart, 
and lights up my darkest days. 

Until We Meet Again
by Unknown

Each morning when we awake
we know that you are gone.
And no one knows the heartache
As we try to carry on.

Our hearts still ache with sadness
and many tears still flow.
What it meant to lose you,
No one will ever know.

Our thoughts are always with you,
your place no one can fill.
In life we loved you dearly,
In death we love you still.

There will always be a heartache,
and often a silent tear,
But always a precious memory
Of the days when you were here.

If tears could make a staircase,
And heartaches make a lane,
We'd walk the path to heaven
And bring you home again.

We hold you close within our hearts,
And there you will remain,
To walk with us throughout our lives
Until we meet again.

Our family chain is broken now,
And nothing will be the same,
But as God calls us one by one,
The chain will link again.