Poems, Songs, Readings for a Funeral?

Subject: Poems, Songs, Readings for a Funeral?
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 17 Nov 11 - 09:45 AM

A close family member has recently passed leaving us in a bit of a quandary as to what to use for readings at the funeral; humanist, but deeply spiritual, with a love of the sea & the landscapes of Northumberland and Yorkshire. I have a few ideas, but maybe I'm too close for any sort of clarity.

Ideas welcome...

Subject: RE: Poems, Songs, Readings for a Funeral?
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 17 Nov 11 - 10:00 AM

Crossing the Bar by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
    Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
    Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
    When I embark;

For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
    The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
    When I have crost the bar.

Rani Arbo put this to music beautifully with her former band Salamander Crossing. Very sorry for your loss.

Subject: RE: Poems, Songs, Readings for a Funeral?
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 17 Nov 11 - 10:15 AM

Cheers Barbara - that's beautiful. The loss is a weird one because we lost her when she had her stroke 6 years ago; so it's a sense of completion, release, liberation and the re-joining of old friends that's uppermost right now. If some things are worse than death, then even death itself might be welcome in the end.

Subject: RE: Poems, Songs, Readings for a Funeral?
From: open mike
Date: 17 Nov 11 - 10:49 AM

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 glints on snow,
    I am the sun on ripened grain,
    I am the gentle autumn rain.
    When you awaken in the morning's hush
    I am the swift uplifting rush
    Of quiet birds in circling flight.
    I am the soft starlight at night.
    Do not stand at my grave and cry,
    I am not there; I did not die.

Mary Frye, who was living in Baltimore at the time, wrote the poem in 1932.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_not_stand_at_my_grave_and_weep

Subject: RE: Poems, Songs, Readings for a Funeral?
From: Crowhugger
Date: 17 Nov 11 - 12:26 PM

My heartfelt condolences.

Perhaps browse your favourite Thoreau (if he's known over there). As a humanist who meditates almost daily in the company of the minutiae and grandeur of nature I find countless opportunities to "be" there when I must be indoors.

Subject: RE: Poems, Songs, Readings for a Funeral?
From: Wolfhound person
Date: 17 Nov 11 - 01:22 PM

Bonny Druridge Bay: Lindisfarne - both tunes by Matt Seattle.
Wild Hills of Wannie (that's a poem too).

Paws

Subject: RE: Poems, Songs, Readings for a Funeral?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 17 Nov 11 - 01:59 PM

I am standing on the seashore,
A ship sails and spreads her white sails to the morning breeze
And starts for the ocean.
She is an object of beauty and I stand watching her till at last she fades on the horizon, and someone at my side says " she is gone".
Gone where?
Gone from my sight that is all.
She is just as large in the masts, hull and spurs, as she was when I saw her,
and just as able to bear her load of living freight to its destination.
The diminished size, the total loss of sight is in me not in her, and just at the moment when someone at my side says "She is gone"
There are others who are watching her coming, and other voices take up the glad shout.
"Here she comes."
And that is dying.

Bishop Brent

Subject: RE: Poems, Songs, Readings for a Funeral?
From: Megan L
Date: 17 Nov 11 - 02:00 PM

Jim Brannigan (Jim Lad) does a beautiful haunting version of "Oft in the stilly night the poem of Thomas Moore

Oft, in the stilly night,
Ere Slumber's chain has bound me,
Fond Memory brings the light
Of other days around me;
The smiles, the tears,
Of boyhood's years,
The words of love then spoken;
The eyes that shone,
Now dimm'd and gone,
The cheerful hearts now broken!
Thus, in the stilly night,
Ere Slumber's chain hath bound me,
Sad Memory brings the light
Of other days around me.

When I remember all
The friends, so link'd together,
I've seen around me fall
Like leaves in wintry weather;
I feel like one,
Who treads alone
Some banquet-hall deserted,
Whose lights are fled,
Whose garlands dead,
And all but he departed!
Thus, in the stilly night,
Ere Slumber's chain hath bound me,
Sad Memory brings the light
Of other days around me.

Subject: RE: Poems, Songs, Readings for a Funeral?
From: Bert
Date: 17 Nov 11 - 03:18 PM

Goodbye (Bert Hansell)

Your life's hard work is over
all the storms have left the sky
the sun sets in the mountains
and its time to say goodbye

you have been my own true lover
the time has come I know
you'll be part of me forever
though I have to let you go

Subject: RE: Poems, Songs, Readings for a Funeral?
From: Bert
Date: 17 Nov 11 - 03:20 PM

Ariseli

A         D               A
Sleep softly my pretty one
             E7
Sleep softly my darling
          A                                     E7
You promised a happiness that only you could bring
          D                   A
You came for a moment
       E7                     A
and then you were gone
E7                            A          E7 A
Faded away like a snowflake in spring
            D                A
Sleep softly my pretty one
                   E7   A
Sleep softly my love

Subject: RE: Poems, Songs, Readings for a Funeral?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 17 Nov 11 - 06:30 PM

The poem 'Dover Beach.' by Matthew Arnold. Very humanist.

The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand;
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Agaean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.


Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

=============
You woulnd't have to use all of it.

Subject: RE: Poems, Songs, Readings for a Funeral?
From: Amos
Date: 17 Nov 11 - 08:41 PM

Gone From My Sight


I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails
to the morning breeze
and starts for the blue ocean.

She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until at length
she hangs like a speck of white cloud
just where the sea and sky come
to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says;
"There, she is gone!"
"Gone where?"
Gone from my sight. That is all.

She is just as large in mast and hull
and spar as she was when she left my side
and she is just as able to bear her
load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at the moment when someone
at my side says, "There, she is gone!"

There are other eyes watching her coming,
and other voices ready to take up the glad
shout;

"Here she comes!"

And that is dying.

by Henry Van Dyke, a 19th Century clergyman, educator, poet, and religious writer.

Subject: RE: Poems, Songs, Readings for a Funeral?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 18 Nov 11 - 12:40 AM

Apologies. I took my post from a site and obviously they got it wrong (and subsequently so did I).

Beautiful poem.

Subject: RE: Poems, Songs, Readings for a Funeral?
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 18 Nov 11 - 04:12 AM

Thank you all so very much for this. As of now, I think we've nailed it with a dual reading of Tennyson & Van Dyke, but all of your suggestions here have been deeply affecting & much appreciated by way of overall (abd personal) catharthis.

Subject: RE: Poems, Songs, Readings for a Funeral?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 18 Nov 11 - 08:15 AM

You're very welcome. You have my sympathy at this difficult time.

Subject: RE: Poems, Songs, Readings for a Funeral?
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 23 Nov 11 - 07:15 PM

Gave a reading of Tennyson's Crossing the Bar at my mother's funeral today; makes other gigs seem very straightforward somehow.

Again, thanks for all your help.

Subject: RE: Poems, Songs, Readings for a Funeral?
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Nov 11 - 08:13 PM

I Will Not Pass This Way Again

Subject: RE: Poems, Songs, Readings for a Funeral?
From: open mike
Date: 23 Nov 11 - 09:17 PM

I recall hearing of a song about a ship sailing away and disappearing after going over the horizon...but do not recall who it is by. A friend once asked me to help him find the lyrics for a friend's (or brother's) ask scattering which was being held on a sail boat. Does this song ring a bell with anyone?

Subject: RE: Poems, Songs, Readings for a Funeral?
From: Alan Day
Date: 24 Nov 11 - 04:20 AM

I went to a funeral some time ago and I remember the words spoken by a little old man with a long white beard.
Life is like a stream that starts deep in a mountain , or, hillside. A tiny trickle of water jumping, twisting and turning as it comes down the hill, gathering strength as it is joined by others, slowing down as it forms a beautiful river and finally gently flows out to sea.
I have composed a tune which tries to recreate this called "Stream to river flows" which I can post, or send it to you if you PM me.
Al

Subject: RE: Poems, Songs, Readings for a Funeral?
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Nov 11 - 04:21 AM

The poem "Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep" is also a beautiful song.
recorded by the women's group Angel Band on their CD 'With Roots and Wings".

AnneMc

Subject: RE: Poems, Songs, Readings for a Funeral?
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 24 Nov 11 - 04:51 AM

Does this song ring a bell with anyone?

It sounds like the Van Dyke poem (Gone From My Sight) given above in a couple of versions. Although I didn't read it in the event, I read it to some of my mother's friends as we sat around the Wooden Doll in North Shields afterwards with impressive views over the mouth of the River Tyne even as we watched one of the big Scandinavian ferries disappear over the horizon.