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cool pagan-like poems appropriate for parents funeral
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4leafplanet
4 posts

cool pagan-like poems appropriate for parents funeral
May 26, 2010, 11:34
In a few weeks I have my mom's funeral and am thinking about the possibility of reading something that expresses my sort of attitude concerning the whole ball of wax. Below is a couple things I had for my dad's funeral that I would like to share here below. Both are American Indian, I would be happy to hear anybody else's which they've found... I'm sure there's some great in English/Irish writing I'm not aware of. This would be wonderful.

If this or something similar has been covered elsewhere in posts on the forum please direct me!

cheers and happy Summer!
4leaf


a Quechua prayer
----------
Where are you going, my father?
I'm going to the great forest, I'm going walking.
Why do you go? Who goes with you?
I go to the harvest, I go alone.

In the woods where you must go
Black flag is waving.
In the open place where you must cross
departing grass spreads cloaks of flowers.


Little Bell,
Ring farewell for me.
I am going to the great forest.
I will never return.





a Souix prayer
-------
My child, you have toiled through life and come to the end: and now our Lord has obliged you. Truly our home is not on earth: only for a while, only briefly do we w do we enjoy the companionship of one another. You have been taken by the Lord, he of the Swirling Waters, and also the Lady of the Land.
He has made you be his servant, he has brought you to his seat. For truly our home is there, our place of creation and ending is there, there where the the earth grows wide, where it all ends.
Now you have gone, gone to what ever kind of place it may be, the place where we all are born, the place we all go to,
At the end of many days you went away and left your children, your grandchildren; you left them orphaned you left them living. We will go and join you, we will be with you at the end of many days.
tjj
tjj
3606 posts

Edited May 26, 2010, 20:01
Re: "... a thousand winds that blow"
May 26, 2010, 17:51
Sorry to hear about your mother.

This short poem was included in a publication of The Nation's Favourite Poems (back in 1998). Although at the time its origins were described as a mystery it had become Britain's favourite poem.

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 glint 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.
Branwen
824 posts

Edited May 28, 2010, 14:13
Re: cool pagan-like poems appropriate for parents funeral
May 26, 2010, 21:04
Sorry for your loss 4leafplanet. May the spirit of the heights lend your mother grace in her journey passing into the west.

We have a mixture of customs here in Scotland. We lament a birth (lullabys are very dirge-like here) as the child has come from a place of joy to a world of toil. At a funeral we rejoice as the soul returns to the island of everlasting youth midst the great waters of the west.

There is an appropriate time for lamenting, after the proper period has elapsed after passing (3 to 7 days depending on the area) - at the funeral procession, and they do this with much gusto and even professionalism. The clan's greatest keeners and wailers would lead this ritualised keening as they followed the procession.

At the burial itself a poem, or more often song would be sung. One specially composed or a traditional lament. If specially composed it followed traditional lines though. The refrain (weary weary oh, so sad I am without thee) is used as a chorus, and the whole funeral party will sing this together.

The Corries do a version of Griodal Cridhe - a gaelic lament made famous by a Glen Lyon widow. They sing partly in English and partly in Gaelic. "Bheir Mi Oh" sounds like "Wearie Oh" or "Veer Mi Oh", depending on the area the gaelic speaker comes from.

GLENLYON LAMENT
Weary, weary, up the hill,
Weary doon the brae,
Weary by yon riverside,
Where we will meet again.
(weary oh refrain)
Gone where but the west wind blaws,
Gone where but the snow ne'er fa's,
I would sleep where sleepeth ‘ee,
Where the violets grow.


A lot of love songs have the Bheir Mi Oh refrain in them, perhaps implying the loved one is a person that is lost to the west.

THE FAIRY CHASE
I left my darling lying here, a-lying here, a-lying here,
I left my darling lying here, to go and gather blaeberries.
(weary oh refrain)
I’ve lost my darling baby O!
I’ve found the wee brown otter’s track,
(weary oh refrain)
But ne’er a trace of baby O!
I found the track of the swan on the lake,
(weary oh refrain)
But not the track of baby O!
I found the track of the yellow fawn,
but could not trace my baby O!
(weary oh refrain)
I found the trail of the mountain mist,
But ne’er a trace of baby O!


Personally I would like the Afrocelts to play at my funeral, even though their songs are a mix of cultures. "Eistigh Liomsa Sealad" is a perfect keening. "Release" is appropriate as it was written to commemorate a band member who had passed into the west, and features Sinead, it was described as "Proof of the healing powers of music and Sinead's amazing shamanic qualities. Their track "Mother" might be more personal for you, though it is sung in Kinyarwanda.

RELEASE

Don’t argue amongst yourselves
Because of the loss of me
I’m sitting amongst yourselves
Don’t think you can’t see me

Don’t argue amongst yourselves
Because of the loss of me
I haven’t gone anywhere
But out of my body

Reach out and you’ll touch me
Make effort to speak to me
Call out and you’ll hear me
Be happy for me

Don’t argue amongst yourselves
Because of the loss of me
I haven’t gone anywhere
But out of my body

Reach out and you’ll touch me
Make effort to speak to me
Call out and you’ll hear me
Be happy for me

Reach out and you’ll touch me
Make effort to speak to me
Call out and you’ll hear me
Be happy for me



MOTHER - ENGLISH LYRICS

Sun, sun goes down
There is no pain here
Beside her
Beside her

Somewhere deeper I hear her
As from a dream
And it's all that I can keep
Of what might have been

I've fallen down and I'm in your space
And I know that the time has come
To feel your grace


The Clanada Gadellica has collected together a lot of celtic funeral customs, if those interest you. As close as the stone is to the earth, so may the blessing of the gentle protector be as close to you in your times of need.
Resonox
604 posts

Re: cool pagan-like poems appropriate for parents funeral
May 27, 2010, 06:43
She never left,she is still here
To wipe away my selfish tear
In summer sun and winter snows
Her spirit like a soft wind blows
moss
moss
2897 posts

Re: cool pagan-like poems appropriate for parents funeral
May 27, 2010, 07:28
I think I'd go back to the poetry of Gary Snyder and Wendell Berry to express the magical and marvellous aspect of the natural world which we live in now and then return to. Snyder in his 'Mountains and Rivers Without End' quotes a 11th century Chinese poet...

Clearing the mind and sliding in
To that created space,
a web of waters streaming over rocks
air misty but not raining...

and Wendell Berry



The Peace of Wild Things

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the middle of the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Branwen
824 posts

Edited May 27, 2010, 14:12
Re: cool pagan-like poems appropriate for parents funeral
May 27, 2010, 14:09
moss wrote:
I think I'd go back to the poetry of Gary Snyder and Wendell Berry to express the magical and marvellous aspect of the natural world which we live in now and then return to.


The second poem you quote speaks to me of consolation of those that remain behind, moss.

Reminds me (of the first part at least) of a kundalini raising type of meditation called the Dercad Duthracht. The first part is a calming meditation on the power of still waters and becoming one with the natural world. If you do it long and often enough the calm comes at will even in times of need just by reciting the first line (kind of a bio-feedback self hypnosis thing I guess).

I usually use the following poem by Rachel Anand Taylor:-

THE IMMORTAL HOUR

Still as the Great Waters that lie in the West,
So is my spirit still.
I lay, with folded hands upon my breast,
My will within Thy Will.

Oh Fortune! Idle pedlar! Now pass me by!
Oh Death! Keep far from me! I cannot die!

The passion flowers come lacing o'er the door,
Of my low sill.
As dews their trem'bling sweetness fill,
So do I rest in Thee.

It is mine hour! Unflawed of pain, or sin!
It is mine hour! Let none set foot therein!

Tis laid and steeped in solemn silence now,
Far to outlast
The stormy hearts of poets, when we are gone,
Long, long ages past.
AngieLake
16 posts

Re: cool pagan-like poems appropriate for parents funeral
May 27, 2010, 22:27
Sorry to hear about your mum. I've got a couple of photos of my parents (they died years ago now), framed together with this poem, which gives me comfort. It's by a wartime poet called Seigfried Sassoon.

"I Shall Find You

In the grey summer garden I shall find you
with day-break and the morning hills behind you,
there will be rain-wet roses; stir of wings;
and down the wood a thrush that wakes and sings.
Nor from the past you'll come, but from that deep
where beauty murmurs to the soul asleep:
and I shall know the sense of life re-born
from dreams into the mystery of morn
where gloom and brightness meet.
And standing there
till that calm song is done, at last we'll share
the league-spread, quiring symphonies that are
joy in the world, and peace, and dawn's one star."
goffik
goffik
3926 posts

Re: cool pagan-like poems appropriate for parents
May 28, 2010, 05:29
Hi, 4leaf

if none of these excellent suggestions quite hit the mark, there's a ridiculous amount of megalithic poetry over on this thread here: http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/forum/?thread=23046&offset=50 - there's bound to be something among that lot that'll float yer boat! :)

G x
4leafplanet
4 posts

Re: cool pagan-like poems appropriate for parents
May 28, 2010, 15:22
thank you one and all for the lovely input... i will be spending some time this weekend investigating people and places you've mentioned.

a hearty hail to you!

4leafplantit
Wild Wooder
216 posts

Re: cool pagan-like poems appropriate for parents
May 29, 2010, 08:57
Just picked up your thread 4leafplanet, and found that and all the replies very moving. I'd like if I may to add another couple of poems.

The first is christian based but applicable to all beliefs and philosophies. It was read at both my father and father-in-law's funerals:

Death is nothing at all
I have only slipped away into the next room
I am I and you are you
Whatever we were to each other
That we are still
Call me by my old familiar name
Speak to me in the easy way 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 always 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 effort
Without the ghost of a shadow in it
Life means all that it ever meant
It is the same as it ever was
There is absolute unbroken continuity
What is death but a negligible accident?
Why should I be out of mind
Because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you for an interval
Somewhere very near
Just around the corner
All is well.


Canon Henry Scott-Holland, 1847-1918, Canon of St Paul's Cathedral

The second is by Alfred Lord Tennyson and also applicable to all beliefs. It's called Crossing the Bar

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 though from out our bourn 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.
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