Poem by unknown

If I be the first of us to die
Let grief not blacken long your sky
Be bold yet modest in your grieving
There is change but not a leaving
For just as death is part of life
The dead live on forever in the living
For all the gathered riches of our journey
The moments shared, the mysteries explored
The steady layer of intimacy stored,
The things that made us laugh or weep or sing
The joy of sunlit snow or first unfurling of the spring
The wordless language of look and touch
The knowing
Each giving and each taking
These are not flowers that fade
Nor trees that fall and crumble
Nor are they stone
For even stone cannot the wind and rain withstand
And mighty mountain peaks in time reduce to sand
What we were, we are
What we had, we have
A conjoined past imperishably present.
So when you walk the woods where once we walked together
And scan in vain the dappled bank beside you for my shadow
Or pause where we always did upon the hill to gaze across the land
And spotting something, reach by habit for my hand
And finding none, feel sorrow start to steal upon you
Be still
Close your eyes
Breathe
Listen for my footfall in your heart
I am not gone but merely walk within you. author unknown