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Are we allowed poems?
Are we, I hope so...? I am currently reading a BBC publication of the nations favourite poems, as voted by the public in a nationwide poll. The poem below did not get included in the top 100, but rather appears in the Foreword. It was left in an envelope by a soldier for his parents to be opened in the event of his death, and who was subsequently killed in Northern Ireland. At first believed to be have written by the soldier, this was not the case*. I personally found it very moving:
Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep
Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
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.
(*it's origin is disputed, but is now thought to most likely to have been written by Mary Elizabeth Frye, who was living in Baltimore at the time, and wrote it in 1932).
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