This is a fairly early draft of a poem that came to me, one afternoon a little while ago.  I do not regard myself as a poet but trying this genre, helps to express complex ideas, in a lot less words.

I say it is a draft, as to try and perfect it, would take a lot more work.  For the moment I felt some might find it useful as we reflect on life death and eternity.

It is best read slowly and reflectively.  I could have dramatised it with images and background music but instead I am taking a more traditional approach, where I invite the reader to experience their own images

There is a recording that you might find useful to listen to after you have read it yourself.

 

when death comes

 

As the road of my life winds into the sunset,

and darkness grows on the horizon

I gaze into the darkness, closer than ever before

I wonder, wonder, as I have many times before

what lies in the darkness.

 

I wonder what it will be like, when that moment comes?

Will it be violent, and excruciating pain?

Will it be peaceful, a breath that just ceases to be?

Will it be long and painful, as disease, eats me away?

I have walked this road with many people

but always as one of the living, walking with the dying,

walking with the dead.

I once tried to cross that line and angered those that remain.

But now in the twilight the darkness is so very close

 

On my road I have heard many speak

of what the darkness is.

Some have said however one ceases to be

that first the light appears inviting your embrace

but the soul laden with darkness

Turns from the embrace

 

then Demons appear,

that horrify the soul

and as one turns in fear

The light once more appears

 

And so one struggles to and fro

Good and evil intermingled in the soul

One’s Karma drawing one to and fro,

until in the distance, one sees

lovers intertwined embracing

 

And so once more we are born

To the wheel of birth and death

and life begins again, another life to live (1)

 

And in that life another journey

on the road that leads to the twilight-

there are many souls one might remember,

from times of former lives.

It is so hard to remember

to really really know

what one has been through many lives ago

through many cycles of birth and death and death and birth

perhaps an animal or less; a beggar or more……..

 

Others say that in the darkness

the light appears

and if you have chosen right,

with your sins cleansed

the light embraces you

and carries you through the gate

to a place of joy and wonder

where all before are with you

surrounded in the light

 

Some of these also say, that if you have not chosen right

Have not accepted Jesus as your saviour

the light dispels you into the darkest night

To a place of eternal suffering, of torment for ever, ever more

A suffering far worse than you have ever known before

and that this will be your life for ever evermore

 

but there are others who say this is too harsh

and yet you must pay the price

of failing in your journey, to make your choice aright

and so in the darkness you just cease to be

you very being is no more

leaving but fragments on life’s shore, (2)

 

But then I wonder

how I can nothing be

when nothing never has been

and once created, I can never not be

That in in the return to dust something remains.

 

Again there are others

in speaking of right and wrong

that if you believed in Jesus and the blessed Trinity

that you have not believed in truth

because God only one can be

not mysteriously one and three.

 

that Mohammed is his final word

and Jesus did not die

but rather God to heaven him took

until the final day (3)

 

And so I ask as the Sun is nearly set

what will my journey be?

 

Will I be in hell

because Mohammed I did not hear?

Will I be in hell

because I believe that God is love?

For although a saviour I might think I have

my sins are not atoned as I could not accept

To hell some must go.

and so my journey to the netherworld must be

 

and because I sort the truth

I never really belonged

to anyone who says their way is true

because as I walked the road

and the people I have heard

there is no agreement of what the journey is

 

And so I had no choice but to ask my soul

to tell me what she has learned

along my rocky road

what is my destiny when the sun has set?

 

And from deep within

I hear songs of joy

for when I first turned to God

God’s cleansing began

 

and although on the road

I have suffered much

that in the darkness my soul’s purification will be

As God’s way is revealed in many many ways

Whilst Jesus promise will be fulfilled

And as he is lifted up, all are drawn in love

A love that shows the truth of who we really are

Freeing me, freeing  us through suffering

of all the hurt I have done,

Freeing us of all the hurt we have done

 

then I will join the others that have passed this way, that are passing this way

and all of us will try to help those that are still on the way.

 

Endnotes

• some thoughts from the Tibetan book of the dead
• some Christian views
• part of Islam’s view of Jesus