The End Or A New Beginning Poem by Mary Champion

Death, like birth, is a lonely journey into the unknown.
At birth, we emerge from darkness into the light,
with a cry of terror which suggests
that our first breath is less than welcome.
At Death…
Who knows?
From light into darkness?
From pain and fear into everlasting joy?
Do we become absolutely unconscious,
or conscious of absolutely nothing?
Is there a life beyond this apparent extinction?
Or is the fragile flame of our identity extinguished forever?
Are we reunited with those who have gone before?
Or are we, like them, irretrievably lost?

No one has ever emerged from the channel of Birth
or returned through the doors of Death
with answers to these questions.
Or have they?
That, of course, depends
on whether reincarnation is a fact
or desperately imagined wishful thinking.
If it is a reality,
surely, we should remember our comings and goings.

But perhaps our conscious awareness,
like our physical form,
is a mortal construct.
Perhaps only the vital essence -
our heart and soul - survives
and cannot verbalise the memories.
If this is so,
how often must we face Birth and Death,
In ignorance?





DEATH HAIKU

No doubt, birth is a
terminal disease. It will
always prove fatal.