For those who have lost a spouse

ElCy

This poem was given to me by hospice.

Gone From My Sight

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side, spreads her white sails to the moving 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, 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 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

Ed1937

Love it, ElCy. Thank you!

M1

Elcy it also reminds me of an old poem my grandmother loved, Crossing the Bar. Tennyson maybe? Same image, a ship sailing out of sight.

Dutiful One

It truly is a beautiful poem. I believe it's from the book, Gone From My Sight, which is one of a series written by Barbara Karnes, RN. As I recall, it is often referred to as the hospice blue book. These books (or actually, booklets), have been tremendously helpful to me in the past.

Tennyson's Crossing the Bar is one of my favorites and has brought me a lot of comfort, too.

Thank you for sharing this wonderful piece.

M1

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.