And When I Die
Let’s talk more about death but let’s be cheerful about it: Do you know that poem by Mary Oliver When Death Comes? I loved it so much when I first saw it that I typed it up and framed it: For the last 15 years it has hung in our downstairs bathroom, right at eye level over the toilet so that most of our male visitors know it by heart. One does anyway. You could go up to this young guy while he was skiing down a mountain in the middle of blizzard and say recite "When Death Comes" and bam! he'd do it for you. Perfectly. At lightning speed. (Ah Youth!)I used to know it by heart. Now I can get through only the first few lines alas, the rest having gotten tumbled around with all the other things I know by heart like "Stopping by Woods on A Snowy Evening" and "Jabberwocky" and the Preamble to the Constitution. Thanks to the minor deities Cut and Paste though, I can give it to you now:
When death comeslike the hungry bear in autumnwhen death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purseto buy me, and snaps his purse shut;when death comeslike the measle-pox;when death comeslike an iceberg between the shoulder blades,I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering;what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?And therefore I look upon everythingas a brotherhood and a sisterhood,and I look upon time as no more than an idea,and I consider eternity as another possibility,and I think of each life as a flower, as commonas a field daisy, and as singular,and each name a comfortable music in the mouthtending as all music does, toward silence,and each body a lion of courage, and somethingprecious to the earth.When it's over, I want to say: all my lifeI was a bride married to amazement.I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.When it's over, I don't want to wonderif I have made of my life something particular, and real.I don't want to find myself sighing and frightenedor full of argument.I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.
Pretty nice eh? And here's another nice one, a song Laura Nyro wrote that Peter Paul & Mary covered in the 60s before Blood Sweat & Tears got their hands on it. A great tune with a great message, whoever's doing the singing.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_R02Mm_J_s]
