Obsequies

Hi Family,

I’m glad you’re here;

I guess I’m not.

I’d like a private gathering

of family, friends and neighbors

probably at home but with

someone from St. Philips attending.

Above all, I’d like music quietly in the background.

Shouldn’t have any trouble with that.

A flurry of second movements would do.

Barber violin concerto and the Adagio for Strings,

the sublime Mozart K. 595 in B-flat

and the Fauré Pié Jesu.

During the food,

and God I hope there’s drinks.

“In the continuum of endless time,

sins may not be forgotten,

but surely…they are forgiven.”

Maybe folks could sing or hum

Brother James’s Air.

Someone might read First Timothy 3:16

and First Corinthians 12:4-13.

I’d like my kids to read

a poem of mine they like

and Leigh to say one of her own.

I want to leave something of my years

to my children, my dissertation, poems,

some things that last beyond mourning tears.

Above all, I wish I could leave all of you my faith

a faith that believes that something continues

like the molecules of which we’re composed,

changed, inexorably, but still part of this universe

and whatever order God comprises.

And finally to my kids I’d like to leave courage,

independence, the heart to let good memories

bury bad ones, to find things to do

and to depend on one another if that helps

Because, as I have loved you,

you love one another too.