A Cage To Hold My Dreams
Fragments Of Heaven
I fail to understand why everybody
makes such a big drama out of death,
as if there was something
fundamentally unjust about it.
Dying is a natural consequence of
living, as natural as the joyful caprices
of being young, or having a family
or being good at algebra.
Yet we approach it always with fear
and resentment.
When it happens, we express
shock and disbelief, as if it had
no right to be amongst us
Death has a greater right to stalk us
than pleasure or intelligence.
It is our one inescapable destiny.
Far more terrifying, surely, would be
a lifespan without end,
to be earth-bound for all eternity.
When we are young, conquering
our fear of death is difficult.
Films about satanic excess and being
sealed alive in a coffin create
images which are too horrible to
think about.
If you fear death, here is what to do.
Go out-of-doors on a clear summer
night, lay back among the sleeping
flowers. Feel the energy of
the silent earth anoint and purify you.
Gaze at the millions of stars above
you. Each particle in that
white spray is a fragment of heaven.
My father is up there,
and my mother, and others along
the way who helped to mould the man
who became me.
Last year, in a cottage garden
in Ireland, I lay on the grass and
under the mantle of heaven
I heard the voice of my darling
Celia from the deep earth, and
saw her face in a cluster of stars.
And I knew then that nobody
really dies. We simply pass
from temporal to eternal when
our names are called.
Celia is there and I am here.
How can anyone fear the act
of kindness which will bring
us together again ?
makes such a big drama out of death,
as if there was something
fundamentally unjust about it.
Dying is a natural consequence of
living, as natural as the joyful caprices
of being young, or having a family
or being good at algebra.
Yet we approach it always with fear
and resentment.
When it happens, we express
shock and disbelief, as if it had
no right to be amongst us
Death has a greater right to stalk us
than pleasure or intelligence.
It is our one inescapable destiny.
Far more terrifying, surely, would be
a lifespan without end,
to be earth-bound for all eternity.
When we are young, conquering
our fear of death is difficult.
Films about satanic excess and being
sealed alive in a coffin create
images which are too horrible to
think about.
If you fear death, here is what to do.
Go out-of-doors on a clear summer
night, lay back among the sleeping
flowers. Feel the energy of
the silent earth anoint and purify you.
Gaze at the millions of stars above
you. Each particle in that
white spray is a fragment of heaven.
My father is up there,
and my mother, and others along
the way who helped to mould the man
who became me.
Last year, in a cottage garden
in Ireland, I lay on the grass and
under the mantle of heaven
I heard the voice of my darling
Celia from the deep earth, and
saw her face in a cluster of stars.
And I knew then that nobody
really dies. We simply pass
from temporal to eternal when
our names are called.
Celia is there and I am here.
How can anyone fear the act
of kindness which will bring
us together again ?
