A beam of holy light
Once upon a winter night
Fell into my eye
And I began to cry.
In that dark and silent sky
I saw the way I die.
But to me it was no fright,
I was calmed by the sight.
Then it left just as it came
Leaving nothing quite the same.
The world may be unchanged,
But my mind is rearranged.
Now I stare at drops of rain
And wonder if they feel the pain.
My friends all say I’ve gone insane,
They worry about my aging brain.
I say worry is an awful waste.
Such things do not suit my taste.
I would rather walk the wood,
And remember all things good.
Epilogue
The Angel of Death
A brilliant beam of light
Broke through my eyes one night
Staring at a dark and silent sky
I saw where we go when we die.
The Angel of Death took me there
And bid me never to despair
For no creature need beware
Of their own deathly lair.
The vision left me with some queer delight
And I began to pray with all my might
That god have mercy and let me stay
In this fallen realm where children play.
I wished only that he not take me too soon
So that I might admire the sun and moon
and the other wonders of creation
While I wait for my cremation.
I got no answer but my own thought’s echo
I began to wonder if I could ever let go
Of the things in my possession
And become a living lesson.
What does it matter the things I keep
When I could lose it all in my sleep
My body growing cold beside my wife
A bed of ashes, following the flames of life.
A shudder ran down my spine
As I realized nothing is mine
All is taken on loan, with credit
To the one who first created it.
My shoes, and the feet inside
The world, and myself beside
Are all like toys for a child.
And all things in this world are wild.
Just as this was sounding in my skull
A new thought on my mind did pull:
That I was no more or less than any man,
And all we do is the best we think we can.
Feeling quite self-satisfied, I took to my bed
But something wouldn’t get out of my head
It was the Angel of Death, that old specter
Reminding me that the world is a reflector
Of some superior realm invisible
In which nothing is divisible.
All things find their resting place
In peace beyond time and space.
And with that encouraging thought
I drifted into dreams that slowly got
Increasingly more surreal and bizarre
Until I came to this, and here we are!
Now say a prayer with me, if you will
I promise it won’t make you ill
Unless you are allergic to gratitude
Or suffer from an unpleasant attitude.
“May our will never break, but always bend.”
“May we always have well wishes to send.”
“May we never see this holy fabric rend.”
“May we never again hasten to The End.”