I Mourn Not
I mourn not for the dead.
I mourn not for those
In their Eternal Home.
I mourn not for those in Hell.
I mourn not for those in Heaven.
I mourn not for the loved ones,
Lost to this Cursed World.
I mourn not for the life
They left behind,
Their Past,
Their unfinished Future.
I mourn not for things left undone,
Mistakes made,
Victories won,
Wounds inflicted,
Kindnesses shown.
I mourn not for the good they did,
The wrongs they wrought.
No, I mourn not for the dead.
(copyright 2011, Juliana M. Cobb)
2 comments:
A very interesting poem. It made me sit up and want to argue at first.
However, as I sat back and reflected, it merged with an observation which has crossed my mind over the years. Jesus, for all his passion for the lost, did not move with the hyperactively-driven urgency some tell us we should have in order to be authentic. Yet, none have equaled his love.
I also pondered his call to us to "mourn" and thought to myself: the most effective mourning is for the living and the near.
I've become more and more bothered by the fact that I can feel such pain for those patients I care for who are dying, and yet nothing at all once they are dead. I thought there was something wrong with me. Until I realized that there is no point mourning for the dead, they are beyond my help and compassion. Now I focus on the living, the dying, the lost. This poem and the next I wanted to put together, but they wouldn't mesh.
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