Bridge to a Future
By Robert Langley
Roads that wind round canyon walls
Like corridors round learning halls
Points of light there on the ground
Will draw you with familiar sounds
Gather there the tools you need
Advice is there for you to heed
Spread the word as given you
And do the work you’re supposed to do
Travel where your heart does tell
Let your knowledge serve you well
Things will flow as to their course
You need not fear, or push, or force
All things come as time dictates
Though time has come for what you wait
The door is open once again
A bridge for futures now and then
Life is Beautiful
By Healther Stephens
You can’t quit until you try
You can’t live until you die
You can’t learn to tell the truth
Until you learn to lie
You can’t breathe until you choke
You gotta laugh when you’re the joke
There’s nothing like a funeral to make you feel alive
Just open your eyes
Just open your eyes
And see that life is beautiful.
Will you swear on your life,
That no one will cry at my funeral?
I know some things that you don’t
I’ve done things that you won’t
There’s nothing like a trailer park to find your way back home
I was waiting for my hearse
What came next was so much worse
It took a funeral to make me feel alive
Just open your eyes
Just open your eyes
And see that life is beautiful.
Will you swear on your life,
That no one will cry at my funeral?
Just open your eyes
Just open your eyes
And see that life is beautiful.
Will you swear on your life,
That no one will cry at my funeral?
The Funeral Bell
By Francis Duggan
The funeral bell is ringing a reminder of our mortality
Farewelling a deceased soul one day ’twill ring for me
Ringing in the stillness of this cool Autumn day
Across the rural city in the morning damp and gray.
The funeral bell is pealing for one a last farewell
And few sounds sadder than the slow peals of the loud funeral bell
Above the streets and houses it echoes to the sky
For one bound for her or his last resting place the cemetery nearby.
The peewees in the town park distinctive in their call
And the magpie on a wattle pipe on this cool morning in the Fall
And for one who will not breathe again the eulogy is read
And the funeral bell is tolling in memory of the dead.
The funeral bell is ringing for one a last goodbye
And on the clock of our mortality the hours just seem to fly
Respect to the departed is all that we can pay
And for each and everyone of us a final night and day.
The Good Funeral
By Matt Ullman
There may be a heaven
Sealed in the dark
Then there’s no denial
About life here on earth
But while I wait here anyway
I have to love this ’til the day –
I want to have the good funeral
Death the mirror of life
Rock and roll in a big stadium
To the tune of paradise
If there is a heaven
I’ll send a little note
Thanking everybody
Every good soul
For the good funeral
Death the mirror of life
Darling do this one thing for me
Don’t you cry
Please just party when I die
Remember
By Christina Rosetti
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.
The Broken Chain
By Unknown
We little knew that morning
God was to call your name.
In life we loved you dearly,
in death we do the same.
It broke our hearts to lose you,
You did not go alone.
For part of us went with you
The day God called you home.
You left us beautiful memories,
Your love is still our guide,
And though we cannot see you,
You are always at our side.
Our family chain is broken,
and nothing seems the same,
But as God calls us one by one,
The chain will link again.
We are Not Alone
by Unknown
We are touched by Angels
walk where angels tread.
They will guard and guide us
through the days ahead.
In times of sorrow,
as in the days of joy,
they bring us hope and comfort
nothing can destroy.
In the hours of darkness,
when our dreams have flown
they bring us peace and healing.
We are not alone
through times of doubting,
still they understand.
We are touched by angels,
walking hand in hand.
Footprints in the Sand
by Margaret Fishback Powers
One night I dreamed a dream.
As I was walking along the beach with my Lord.
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
One belonging to me and one to my Lord.
After the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,
especially at the very lowest and saddest times,
there was only one set of footprints.
This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.
“Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,
You’d walk with me all the way.
But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I don’t understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me.”
He whispered, “My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you.”
A Significant Moment Shared
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
Celebration of Life
by Deborah Peabody
The celebration of life,
shared in the beginning, and again, in the end.
Yet we forget to celebrate it, in every moment we live.
Time, days, years, go on, but are we alive?
Alive and do not know it, sleeping in the world
and dead to the life we are to live.
To celebrate all life,
the sparrow who sang in the morning,
and died in the night,
why do we not celebrate its life?
To know thyself is to know you are alive –
to give, to love, to seek truth, beauty, and suffer pain.
In life as it is meant to be, pain is forgotten, and
strength is all that’s left to be gained
in the moment by moment celebration of life.
Alone Again
by Bonnie Carnahan
Some days the road once traveled is a saddened trail,
Some days it’s roses and it feels so good just to be alive.
Some days we feel like no one is out there who cares,
And you are the only one left to pick up the broken pieces
life has left you to deal with.
Love can be such a wondrous thing and it can also
hurt like a thorn; pricking every feeling and emotion
left inside you.
Sometimes love just stinks and other times
it makes one feel warm and tingly inside.
When the love is gone…
The hurt begins for one or both…
Someone always gets hurt in the end.
Two hearts beating as one…
Two hearts now broken apart.
As the story goes,
I found myself falling in love…
And now I find myself falling apart.
Love can be grand…
It can also tear you apart until you
feel like you can’t go on.
You left when I needed you the most…
But I am strong and I will mend and
fall in love all over again.
To My Best Friend
by Diana Johnson
I kept my promise, to love, honor, and share. I kept my promise that to you that I would always there Until death do we part, that is what they say. Oh my love why did you leave me that day? I wasn’t ready for you to say goodbye, as I look into the heavens with tears in my eyes, I wasn’t ready for you to die. My best friend why did you leave and not say goodbye? With so many questions and no answers as to why. I would have gone with you, however God knows best and took you home to give you rest. I was not ready, no not just yet, With only one regret that I didn’t tell you one last time I love you, and forever you will be mine. My best friend this you must know, and never forget. I will see you again when God calls my name and say’s it is time to go home and be with your best friend once again.
Gates of Prayer – Reform Judaism Prayer Book
by Unknown
As long as we live, they too will live;
For they are now a part of us:
As we remember them!
At the rising sun and at its going down we remember them.
At the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter we remember them.
At the opening of the buds and in the rebirth of spring we remember them.
At the blueness of the skies and in the warmth of summer we remember them.
At the rustling of the leaves and in the beauty of the autumn we remember them.
At the beginning of the year and when it ends we remember them.
As long as we live, they too will live, for they are now a part of us.
As we remember them. When we are weary and in need of strength we remember them.
When we are lost and sick at heart we remember them.
When we have decisions that are difficult to make we remember them.
When we have joy we crave to share we remember them.
When we have achievements that are based on theirs we remember them.
For as long as we live, they too will live,
For they are now a part of us, as we remember them.
Love is Stronger than Death
by Unknown
Love is stronger than death. So I must be content to know that love is not
affected by death– It doesn’t end, it doesn’t diminish, it doesn’t change.
Instead love is immortalized and eternalized through death. And the
possibility of that love ever being damaged or broken is eliminated forever.
I’ll put my trust in love.
Love Lives On
by Unknown
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,
for as long as there is memory,
they’ll live on in the heart.
If Tears Could Build a Stairway
by Unknown
If tears could build a stairway
And heartache make a lane,
I’d walk the path to heaven
And bring you back again.
By Jim Howard
Where I have gone I am not so small.
My soul is as wide as the world is tall.
I have gone to answer the call, the call
Of the One who takes care of us all.
Wherever you look, you will find me there
In the heart of a rose,
In the heart of a prayer.
On butterflies’ wings, on wings of my own,
To you, I’m gone,
But I’m never alone I am home
By Unknown
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.
By Mary Frye
Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blows
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there, I did not die.
By T.C. Ring
We’ve shared our lives these many years. You’ve held
My hand; you’ve held my heart. So many blessings, so
few tears – Yet for a moment, we must part. The
memories you’ve given me are times I’ve shared with
my best friend I’ll hold them, Love. Right here they’ll
be until we share our lives again.
By Melanie Jones
I am peaceful.
I have decided to begin with a new slate, new beginning.
Letting go and believing.
I am going to free fall into the arms of love and believe that the same spirit who has inspired me will make all my dreams come true.
Courage is fear who has said her prayers.
I am reminded, the God who gave me all my dreams is the same God that will make them happen. HE WONT FORGET ME OR FORSAKE ME.
And I think it is time to pay attention to what is to be, not necessarily what I thought was going to happen.
I am trading my discouragement and disappointment for faith and hope wrapped in a beautiful package filled with gratitude and peace.
Love will always rear up in my dreams defense,your family and friends are a great example of this love.
Thank God every day for all you have.
Then thank Him for making your dreams come true.
