Sharing Poems

This year at Pauline Garnett Celebrant in the dales, Pauline has had the opportunity to be apart of many funerals and end of life ceremonies. 

Sharing some of our favourite poems...

 Afterglow – by Helen Lowrie Marshall 

I’d like the memory of me to be a happy one

I’d like to leave an afterglow 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

 Look for me in rainbows 

It’s time for me to go now

 I won’t say goodbye 

Look for me in rainbows 

Way up in the sky 

In the morning sunrise, when all the world is new 

Just look for me and love me, as you know I loved you 

Time for me to leave you, I won’t say goodbye

 Look for me in rainbows, high up in the sky 

In the evening sunset, when all the world is through 

Just look for me and love me 

And I’ll be close to you

 It won’t be forever, the day will come 

And then

 My loving arms will hold you When we meet again 

Time for us to part now 

I won’t say goodbye 

Look for me in rainbows 

Shining in the sky 

Every waking moment

 And all your whole life through 

Just look for me and love me 

As you know I loved you 

Just wish me to be near you And I’ll be there with you 

The Station by Robert J Hastings

Tucked away in our subconscious minds is an idyllic vision in which we see ourselves on a long journey that spans an entire continent. We’re travelling by train, and from the windows, we drink in the passing scenes of cars on nearby highways, of children waving at crossings, of cattle grazing in distant pastures, of smoke pouring from factories, of row upon row of corn and wheat, flatlands and valleys, city skylines and village halls, of biting winter and blazing summer. 

But uppermost in our minds is our final destination. For at a certain hour on a certain day, our train will finally pull into the station. Bands will be playing and flags waving. And once that day comes, so many wonderful dreams will come true. So many wishes will be fulfilled and the pieces of our lives will fit together, neatly, like a jigsaw puzzle. So restlessly we pace the aisles and count the miles……waiting, waiting, waiting, for the station. 

When we reach the station that will be it, we promise ourselves. When I’m eighteen….buy that new car….win that promotion….put the last child through university….pay off the mortgage….when I retire that will be it. From that day on, we shall live happily ever after.

Sooner or later, however, we must realise that there is no station in this life, no one earthly place to arrive at once and for all. The journey is the joy. The station is only an illusion that constantly out distances us. Yesterday’s a memory, tomorrow’s a dream. Yesterday belongs to history, tomorrow to the unknown. Yesterday’s a fading sunset, tomorrow a faint sunrise. Only today is there light enough to love and live. 

So gently close the door on yesterday and throw away the key. It isn’t the burdens of today that drive men mad, but rather regret over yesterday and the fear of tomorrow. Regret and fear are the twin thieves who rob us of today. 

So stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles. Stop waiting, instead climb more mountains, eat more ice cream, sing and dance, kiss more babies, go barefoot more often, swim more rivers, watch more sunsets, count more stars, laugh more, cry less. Life must be lived as we go along. The station will come soon enough

Sharing Poems