For my beloved Tehmi

Place Her Softly Now

Wipe the tears of sleep from aged eyes

No more to witness this world's joy and pain,

Close them gently let the spirit fly

To rest above the sorrows of this sphere

That turns upon a spindle moved by God.

For we, remaining, surely have been blessed

By those great spirits oft descended here

Who cast their godlike glance upon this scene

Of human folly where we in ignorance

Seek for love in barren fields of clay

And tormented deserts, parched and impotent.

Heaven's chosen in our lives appear

From an unknown hand bestowing gifts of grace

To lift our fallen heads that we may see

With upward gaze a greater destiny

Than mind can in its infancy perceive.

Lay her body softly down my friend

For in its lengthy journey from the stars,

The shock of entry into mortal birth

And battered by the blows of untold years,

Though stilled now it has borne its share

And moved the human nearer to the God.

Whether to the pyre or the earth

Consigned, this noble being drape in robes

Of royal hue to let the ages know

That she was one of ours, her very skin

Hung upon the same ingenious frame

That lifted man above his early form

To view the sun erect, with eyes and mind

Mark the passing of the faintest stars.

Her felicity from depths of wonder shone

And every movement bore the stamp of grace,

And from her lips encouragement to all

Who seek among this warring ego-kind

A nobler man to found a nobler race.

But she was far above our soil of grief,

Friend who dwelt immortal in our midst,

Aware in all the transience of days

Beneath a vault of blue unchanging sky

Of world on world beyond and realms of light

Which from her frail and failing frame she cast

As with her song and poetry to men.

Gather her up with light and careful hand,

Press not nor bruise the tender yielding flesh,

Lift her weightless in your arms of love,

This sacred vessel emptied now of soul

Raise above yourselves and honour give

To one who walked in our familiar paths

Yet kept her vision of the vast unseen

Alive and even with her final breath

Remembered one who is our destiny.

This light-filled chapter of the holy book

Now closed and silent in your silence pray

That all may grow towards the light she held

Shedding on our lives its splendid rays.

Let no trumpet break the silent morn

No choir thousand-voiced rise up in song

For one who bore with grace intransigence

And by example taught the law of love.

Place her softly now on beds of flowers

Dreaming of an earthly Paradise

And in the fragrance of this final hour

Consign her to eternity and God.