In many ways, epitaph poetry can be consider the parting words of the deceased.  Typically used to refer to the quote, saying or text inscribed on a headstone, epitaph poems have the same tone as these messages but in verse form. They convey the first person thoughts of the family member or friend that has passed on.

Do Believe I’ll Never Leave You

Do believe I’ll never leave you:
Always I’ll be in your heart.
Don’t forget my soul is near you,
And so we’ll never be apart.

Do believe I’ll never leave you:
Always I’ll be in your heart.
Don’t forget my soul is near you:

Death might take my presence from you,
Yet we’ll never be apart.
~Nicholas Gordon

Do not stand at my grave and weep

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 sunlight 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 circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there, I did not die.
~Mary Frye

For Us There Is No Death

For us there is no death.
Rest here merely bones.
Around you love’s in flower,
Zero though our breath,
Etched into these stones.
Read and feel its power.
~Nicholas Gordon

Joy is not a treasure you can lose

Joy is not a treasure you can lose.
Unless you will not, you will be consoled.
Linger with me long as you may choose.
In music as in life no joy is cold.
Undo, then, the tight corset of your grief
So that you might enjoy the moment’s keening.
Give ear to music, eloquent though brief,
Restoring to the miracle its meaning.
Of all we think and feel and say and do,
So little, really, must be bound by time.
Still palpable, I’m here with all of you,
Musical as ever in this rhyme.
All I was, I am, and yet will be,
No less in love, although in memory.
~Nicholas Gordon

Mostly, I would like to be remembered

Mostly, I would like to be remembered
As someone who was passionate for life.
The days of unsought ecstasies are numbered,
However long we linger in the light.
I was one who cultivated wonder,
Less of one contented to explain,
Delighted by the promises of hunger,
Enduring for their joy the years of pain.
Gifts I had aplenty: Some I savored,
Others sacrificed for others’ needs.
Remember me as someone who was favored,

Despite constraints, to tumble in the leads,
Ocean to what winds I could not be,

Nightrider through what worlds I could not see.
~Nicholas Gordon

So few realize what life is about

So few realize what life is about.
If I knew nothing else, I knew warmth, pleasure,
Despite everything, I knew love.
People look for what they can measure:
A degree, money, children they can brag about,
Reasons others might wish them mazel tov.
On days like other days were moments I treasured,
Life like other lives, humdrum, passing without
Yammering, with you, with the children, full, enough …
~Nicholas Gordon

Life is beautiful, my child

Life is beautiful, my child,
Though many things go wrong,
And you may hear much sadness in
Its strange and lovely song.
Though friends and loved ones die, my child,
They’re never really gone.
Nor more nor less than yesterday,
In you they will live on.

They will live on in you, my child,
As everything you see,
Though it must vanish, will remain
Alive in memory.

Alive in what you think and feel
And dream and say and do,
For all who ever were still are
Upon this earth in you.
~Nicholas Gordon

Remember
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann’d:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
- Christina Rosetti, The Prince’s Progress and Other Poems

Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where this is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled
as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.