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THE EXPERIENCE OF GRIEF

Poetry and Quotes by various authors



"It is the experience of humankind that when we walk through the valley of the shadow
we are not helped by smooth words spoken from a safe distance but by those who
have known the darkness and are prepared to share it with us, and hold us until we see the light"

The Very Rev. Professor James Whyte, DD.




A Poem by Kuan Tao-Shen

Take a lump of clay
Wet it, pat it,
Make a statue of you
And make a statue of me.
Then shatter them, clatter them,
Add some water
And break them and mould them
Into a statue of you
And a statue of me.
Then in mine there are bits of you
And in yours there are bits of me
Nothing ever shall keep us apart.




"At least we're not alone.
Out there, in the world, there are people, who know
People who care.
Even when the future seems like a dark endless tunnel,
Someone, somewhere, is striking a match.
A flicker in the darkness.

From "The Railway Children"





They say there is a reason
They say time will heal
But neither time nor reason
Will change the way I feel
For no-one knows the heartache
That lies behind the smiles
No-one knows the many times
We-ve broken down and cried
We want to tell you something
So there will be no doubt
You're so wonderful to think of
But so hard to live without
We cannot change the old days back
When we were all together
The family chain is broken now
But memories live forever




Ah, this beautiful world! Indeed, I know not what to think of it.
Sometimes it is all gladness and sunshine, and Heaven itself lies not far off,
and then it suddenly changes and is dark and sorrowful,
and the clouds shut out the day. In the lives of the saddest of us
there are bright days when we feel as if we could take the great world in our arms,
then come the gloomy hours, when all without or within is dismal, cold and dark.
Believe me, every heart has it's secret sorrows, which the world knows not,
and oftentimes we call a man cold when he is only sad.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.




Look on each day that comes as a challenge, as a test of courage.
The pain will come in waves, some days worse than others, for no apparent reason.
Accept the pain. Little by little, you will find new strength, new vision,
born of the very pain and loneliness which seem, at first, impossible to master.

By Daphne du Maurier




"Death does not separate us, it only makes us invisible to each other"

By Madame de Stael





So often one attempts to face the whole future at once,
But we will not live that period all at once, only day by day.
Don't try to face 20 years, face today. When that has been achieved,
face tomorrow. You will find more and more ways in which you can cope.
The Chinese have a saying that a journey of a thousand miles
starts with a single step.
There is no way you can take the fifteenth, or the two hundredth step,
before you have taken the first.

By Michael Simpson, from "The Facts of Death"




Memory isn't just recollecting what is past and over,
but slipping out of time and seeing it still alive.
You'd say that time and death are just illusions, like separateness.

By Elizabeth Goudge,"The Castle on the Hill"




If this is not a place where tears are understood,
Where do I go to cry?
If this is not a place where my spirits can take wing,
Where do I go to fly?
If this is not a place where my questions can be asked,
Where do I go to seek?
If this is not a place where my feelings can be heard,
Where do I go to speak?
If this is not a place where you'll accept me as I am,
Where can I go to be?
If this is not a place where I can try to learn and grow,
Where can I be just me?

William J. Crockett




WE'LL MEET AGAIN

They say you will not come again,
But I shall always hear
Your voice in silence and in song,
And feel you ever near.

They say you have passed beyond,
Unto the joy supreme.
But I can always call you back
Into the land of dream.

For death is but a gateway
To the great reality,
A new beginning, not an end
Of human destiny.

For love is all, and life goes on
In spite of grief and pain,
And deep within my heart I know
That we shall meet again.


These lines were written on a piece of paper picked up on a battlefield during the Normandy invasion in World War 11.




Summerwind

The one who owns this summer is not here,
Not here to know the tender Summerwind,
Not here to share the glowing and the song,
The one who owns this summer did not live,
Not live to touch the richness of this day,
This day in summer when you are alone.
Weep to the Summerwind; weep and love again
The one you remember

By Sascha Wagner - who lost both of her children - her son aged 3 by drowning and her daughter aged 19 to suicide. Contributed by Ann Loy, Cori's mum.


REMEMBER ME

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 planned;
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a little while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve;
For if the darkness and corruption leave;
A vestige of the thoughts that I once had.
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.


This beautiful poem is by Christina Rossetti

















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