Home » Discussion Forums » Blog Post Discussion » Death is a low chemical trick...
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| Re: Death is a low chemical trick... [message #29900 is a reply to message #29883 ] |
Thu, 27 May 2010 22:25   |
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I am so sorry.
This poem is the one I read at a friend's memorial service a few years ago... made it through without quite breaking down. (I very very seldom write poetry; Millay has said it all for me. *wry*)
"Dirge without music" - Edna St. Vincent Millay
I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.
Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains, --- but the best is lost.
The answers quick & keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,
They are gone. They have gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.
Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
Still will I harvest beauty where it grows... -- Edna St. Vincent Millay
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| Re: Death is a low chemical trick... [message #29901 is a reply to message #29883 ] |
Thu, 27 May 2010 22:36 |
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ee cummings is my poetry weapon of choice
when god lets my body be
From each brave eye shall sprout a tree
fruit dangles therefrom
the purpled world will dance upon
Between my lips which did sing
a rose shall beget the spring
that maidens whom passions wastes
will lay between their little breasts
My strong fingers beneath the snow
Into strenous birds shall go
my love walking in the grass
their wings will touch with their face
and all the while shall my heart be
With the bulge and nuzzle of the sea
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| Re: Death is a low chemical trick... [message #29902 is a reply to message #29883 ] |
Thu, 27 May 2010 22:43 |
 Catlady
Messages: 230
Registered: December 2008
Location: Aurora, Colorado |
Senior Member |
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For all we sought and missed, or left unclaimed,
for all the dreams we had and lost, for youth,
ruffling his hair, suppled by Time, and tamed,
for love denied, or seen with too much truth,
for faith, like a sword, with long misprision rusted,
for all adventure, before the quest is ended,
abandoned or betrayed, for the beauty misted
by the half-lights of vision, for pity attended
with the bitterness of those who take and give,
for heavens, that had they been accessible,
were heavens only by the side of hell,
for all of us who die, before we live,
for all the crippled feet on the long road
You made for angels, we forgive You, God.
-Humbert Wolfe
This poem is the only one that has ever made me cry. I'll light a candle for your friend, and you, and all of us who have to live in a broken world.
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| Re: Death is a low chemical trick... [message #29911 is a reply to message #29883 ] |
Fri, 28 May 2010 01:20 |
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L.R.K.
Messages: 1080
Registered: October 2008
Location: Sweden |
Senior Member |
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So sorry, Robin.
"The flame also reminds us that life is precious, as each flame is unique. When it goes out, it's gone forever. And there will never be another quite like it."
(Delenn in B5, fifth season episode And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder)
Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean, like butter that has been scraped over too much bread.
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| Re: Death is a low chemical trick... [message #29913 is a reply to message #29883 ] |
Fri, 28 May 2010 02:47 |
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danceswithpahis
Messages: 380
Registered: October 2008 |
Senior Member |
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So sorry to hear about Luke and about your other friend, and sorry that both are happening at once. I too was going to post "Dirge Without Music". I had a friend share that one with me a few years ago when someone we both knew (not very well, but a person who was an integral part of our community) was murdered at random. I think the line that speaks most to me is "More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world." I so often have people try to tell me happy, cheerful things about the death of those that I love ("They've gone to a better place," for example). I am even Christian, and believe in some of these things. I don't care. And if that makes me selfish, so be it. Roses and other lovely things may come from my loved ones' deaths; I would still rather have them alive.
[Updated on: Fri, 28 May 2010 02:48]
"Oh good! My dog found the chainsaw!"
-- Lilo ("Lilo and Stitch")
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| Re: Death is a low chemical trick... [message #29915 is a reply to message #29883 ] |
Fri, 28 May 2010 04:59 |
bonniebythepeak
Messages: 76
Registered: April 2010
Location: Colorado, USA |
Member |
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"...A time to speak, and a time to be silent..."
*reads your poems, sits down near you, says nothing, for in these moments, there are no good words*
"All their life... had only been the cover and title page, now at last, they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story." C.S. Lewis
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| Re: Death is a low chemical trick... [message #29916 is a reply to message #29883 ] |
Fri, 28 May 2010 06:45 |
NotLonely
Messages: 164
Registered: October 2008
Location: SA |
Senior Member |
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I'm so sorry. While this is what I believe, I would still rather have some people back and whole. A candle for you, and for the ones you love.
Forefathers (Birago Diop, Senegal)
Listen more often to things rather than beings.
Hear the fire's voice,
Hear the voice of the water.
In the wind hear the sobbing of the trees,
It is our forefathers breathing.
The dead are not gone forever.
They are in the paling shadows
And in the darkening shadows.
The dead are not beneath the ground,
They are in the rustling tree,
In the murmuring wood,
In the still water,
In the flowing water,
In the lonely place, in the crowd;
The dead are not dead.
Listen more often to things rather than beings.
Hear the fire's voice.
Hear the voice of water.
In the wind hear the sobbing of the trees.
It is the breathing of our forefathers
Who are not gone, not beneath the ground,
Not dead.
The dead are not gone forever.
They are in a woman's breast,
A child's crying, a glowing ember.
The dead are not beneath the earth,
They are in the flickering fire,
In the weeping plant, the groaning rock,
The wooded place, the home.
The dead are not dead.
Listen more often to things rather than beings.
Hear the fire's voice,
Hear the voice of water.
In the wind hear the sobbing of the trees.
It is the breath of our forefathers.
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| Re: Death is a low chemical trick... [message #30039 is a reply to message #29883 ] |
Mon, 31 May 2010 16:00 |
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so sorry.
"they say that absence makes the heart grow fungus".
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| Re: Death is a low chemical trick... [message #30053 is a reply to message #29883 ] |
Mon, 31 May 2010 22:52 |
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we just buried my god father on Saturday,sadly it was a blessing as he was in the last stages of Alzheimers.my sympathies robin.
Bonnie Holmes the faster ahead I go, the more behind I get
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| Re: Death is a low chemical trick... [message #30136 is a reply to message #30053 ] |
Fri, 04 June 2010 04:30 |
NotLonely
Messages: 164
Registered: October 2008
Location: SA |
Senior Member |
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Shalea, and Holmes44, I'm so sorry.
Life always, always finds a way.
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| Re: Death is a low chemical trick... [message #30142 is a reply to message #29900 ] |
Fri, 04 June 2010 17:43 |
CathyR
Messages: 574
Registered: July 2009
Location: NW England |
Senior Member |
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This is just beautiful, glinda. Thank you for sharing it with us. I went to the funeral last week of a good friend made through bellringing, and I wish I'd known this to write in my card to his wife.
Thinking of you Robin, so sorry to hear about both your friend and Luke.
Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.
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| Re: Death is a low chemical trick... [message #30148 is a reply to message #30142 ] |
Fri, 04 June 2010 20:18 |
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CathyR:
Thank you. (It's been a rough couple of weeks - a friend had an emergency C-section at 25 weeks, and the baby lived for a week and a half - we lost her last Friday. There aren't words for how ... gah. words? Don't have.)
Still will I harvest beauty where it grows... -- Edna St. Vincent Millay
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| Re: Death is a low chemical trick... [message #30155 is a reply to message #29883 ] |
Fri, 04 June 2010 21:09 |
bonniebythepeak
Messages: 76
Registered: April 2010
Location: Colorado, USA |
Member |
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Glinda:
There are no good words. I pray for your comfort and peace.
"All their life... had only been the cover and title page, now at last, they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story." C.S. Lewis
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| Re: Death is a low chemical trick... [message #30166 is a reply to message #30155 ] |
Sat, 05 June 2010 02:44 |
CathyR
Messages: 574
Registered: July 2009
Location: NW England |
Senior Member |
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I've been thinking of these poems, and this thread, in the light of the dreadful events in Cumbria this week (12 people shot dead by a man on a mad 45 mile drive around the county).
And I realised how fortunate I am, how small and trivial my own life concerns are, and just how inappropriate it is to get upset when my bellringing doesn't go well, when you all and others are experiencing such sadness.
A salutory reminder for me.
Thank you all.
Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.
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| Re: Death is a low chemical trick... [message #30175 is a reply to message #30174 ] |
Sat, 05 June 2010 11:51 |
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AJLR
Messages: 2565
Registered: September 2008
Location: England, UK |
Senior Member
[Moderator] |
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Yes - 'feelings are facts'. If someone feels a particular way - sadness, hurt, depression, whatever, in response to particular circumstances, then that is how they feel. It's irrelevant for someone else to say 'Oh, I don't think you should feel that way' or 'I wouldn't have felt that' - or even to imply that the feeling is unjustified in some way. It's like those well-meaning (giving them the benefit of the doubt) folk who tell someone who is seriously, ie clinically, depressed to cheer up, or 'get a grip'. Yeah, sure, that's really going to change things for the better!
I'm extremely fortunate in not having had black dogs sitting on my own shoulders but I've seen that sort of attitude directed at someone else and it drives me nuts. [/rant]
"Never let a computer know you're in a hurry."
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| Re: Death is a low chemical trick... [message #30184 is a reply to message #30174 ] |
Sat, 05 June 2010 15:27 |
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CathyR: What Robin said. (I too have had the therapy round or three, and still sometimes get ambushed by the pain-comparison thing, telling myself that I really have it easy compared to some. And then having guilt feelings on top of whatever pain. *wry*)
I don't have answers, other than knowing the best thing we can do is try to be kind to ourselves and comfort each other.
Still will I harvest beauty where it grows... -- Edna St. Vincent Millay
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| Re: Death is a low chemical trick... [message #30269 is a reply to message #30262 ] |
Mon, 07 June 2010 13:05 |
CathyR
Messages: 574
Registered: July 2009
Location: NW England |
Senior Member |
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As an OT, I do a lot of assessments on behalf of charities such as the Royal British Legion with people who have requested assistance with provision of items such as mobility scooters, powered wheelchairs or electric riser/recliner chairs. I come across so many, who are really struggling and have been so for such a long time, who say "I didn't want to ask for any help, I can manage, there are so many people who have more problems than I have, who are worse off than me".
I always try to explain that they shouldn't compare their situations with those of others, that their own problems are real, and that their quality of life is no less adversely affected, simply because someone else may have "worse" symptoms, or be in "more" pain. But it is clearly very difficult for some proud, independent people to accept this.
Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.
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| Re: Death is a low chemical trick... [message #30273 is a reply to message #30272 ] |
Mon, 07 June 2010 16:24 |
CathyR
Messages: 574
Registered: July 2009
Location: NW England |
Senior Member |
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| Robin wrote on Mon, 07 June 2010 15:07 |
'Oh never mind me, spend your time on someone who's WORTH IT.'
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Absolutely, I hear that all the time. And a particular slant on it nowadays is "spend the money on the soldiers coming back from Afghanistan, they need a scooter / wheelchair more than I do".
As if age makes you less "worth it".
Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.
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