words of the dead to live by

words of the dead to live by

 

"Stay! thou this tomb that passeth by,
And think how soon that thou may'st die. . "

I trace the name etched in the cold stone with my fingertips
who was this that calls me to think upon my life's end?
long passed living and well into death's sleep
they, more than any body, has the right of that request
this stone, a marker of their death
has lived longer now than they had in life
and this sudden overbearing of understanding sweeps over me
That this cold, hard, gray stone
carrying the words of a stranger gone beyond
into the realm of the dead
is telling me how i should learn to live
causes me to shudder in gratitude

 

Reviews

[Sastina]

Wow, I've actually written quite a lot about death, and the dead. This really hits me in the heart, you've echoed my own words. It is strange, isn't it to think that someday we will be simply a stone marker. No one left to visit, no one left to leave flowers. Simply a name, on a stone, with some dates.
"From the earth we come, to the earth we will return."