Poetry & readings inspiration for you...

I have put together some beautiful poetry and readings for you. I hope they resonate with you. Love Katya x

Stars at Last
by @letters.to.anna

Two sisters were sitting on the grass.

'Do you think we're together in every universe?' one said quietly to the other.

after thinking for a bit, the other sister said:

'if we come back as flowers, we will grow in the same garden and laugh when the butterflies tickle us.

if we come back as nature, I will be the clouds in your storm.

and if we come back as fruit, we will grow on the same vine.

it could never be possible that we aren't together.'

Rest, Alan Curtis

The memories and love I leave behind are yours to keep.

I have found my rest; I have turned my face to the sun, and now I sleep.

We Do Not Die

Do not stand at my grave and weep

I am not there, I do not sleep

I am a thousand winds that blow,

I am the diamond that glints on the snow,

I am the sun on the ripened grain,

I am the gentle autumn rain,

When you awaken in the morning hush, I am the swift uplifting rush, of quiet birds in circled flight,

I am the soft stars of the night,

Do not stand by my grave and cry, I am not there.

I did not die.

Death is Nothing at All

by Henry Scott Holland

Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away to the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
That, we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way
which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me. Pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word
that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect.
Without the trace of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolute unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?

I am but waiting for you.
For an interval.
Somewhere. Very near.
Just around the corner.

All is well.

Quotes

'In the end it’s not the years in your life that counts it’s the life in your years.'

'Always look on the bright side of life.'

Monty Python

'To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.' Thomas Campbell.

'I always believed that death is a fate far better than life, for you will be reunited with loved ones.

If,
Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream — and not make dreams your master;
If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings — nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And which is more: you'll be a Man, my son!

'I should like to be buried in a summer forest.'

Helen Dunmore

I should like to be buried in a summer forest where people go in July, only a bus ride from the city,

I should like them to walk over to me not noticing anything but sunlight and patches of wild strawberries -

Here! Look under the leaves!

I should like the child who is slowest to end up picking the most,

and the big kids will show the little the only way to grasp a nettle so it doesn't sting.

I should like home-time to come so late the bus has its lights on and a cloud of moths hangs in their beam,

and when they are all gone

I should like to be buried in a summer forest where the dark steps blindfold, on cat foot-pads, with the dawn almost touching it.

Recipes & jokes and advice

Jokes? You may ask. Yes, it really is a thing!

Maybe your loved one was renowned for their joke telling or maybe they were a fantastic cook? Perhaps they had a joke, recipe or life philosophy that they would want to share with loved ones......

'Keep looking up at the stars, they're still shining.'

Ian Chapman