Wake, Watchful Death (A Meditation For The End Of Life) Poem by C Richard Miles

Wake, watchful Death; our life’s long, final race is run
As, striving to complete the mystic Marathon,
The victory is in sight and, though we count the cost,
Help us to struggle on and reach the winning post.

Help. healing Death; curtail our aching agony
And set our course out on that raging, surging sea
But be our compass, steer our foundering barque safe o’er
Until we gain the harbour of that distant shore.

Lead, friendly Death and take us to the beckoning light
Where we shall shine like stars, undimmed by noxious night
Which now assails us on this dreary, darkling earth
And tried to overwhelm us from our mortal birth.

Come, cleansing Death; the ugly larva of the soul
Is fully metamorphosed and is now made whole
To hatch, emerging from its coffined, confined case
And supersede, renewed, restrictive age and space.

Shine, cheerful Death: unleash the trembling butterfly
In corpse’s chrysalis, to fly, freed, to the sky
As, into brighter scenes, with rainbow wings unfurled
It tastes the bounteous banquet of the spirit world.

Guide, helpful Death and hold us firmly by the hand
And lead us ever on, until we rise and stand
To catch a glimpse, as sunrise bright eternal dawns
And place our first, soft footsteps on Elysian lawns.

Take, kindly Death and gently grasp and guide us on
To realms of paradise where, in that heartening Sun,
All earthly troubles, toil and pain and strife shall cease
And we can sleep contented in that perfect peace.

Go, gentle Death; assure our rueful relatives
And friends, who mourn our loss, that memory still lives
And they will recollect, when tears and grief are gone,
Those magic moments which were shared with us alone.

Stay, guarding Death; safe guard the narrow, fragile veil
That separates us, until sorrow’s shadows fail
When heaven’s morning breaks in resurrection light,
Though we are shielded now from one another’s sight.

Wait, faithful Death; wait with all those we dearly love
Until they join us in those heavenly realms above
And, at the last, when we shall meet again as one,
Give us sweet rest, when worlds and time and life are done.