Poem: On a Better Departure

[jrearden]

On a Better Departure

One day a man said this to me,

“O, but to sleep when my end comes!”

But such an end I cannot see!

Rather awake I wish to be!

When that time comes, and I must leave

This dear old friend, this earth I love

I would that I might, with eyes clear

Fondly farewell this glorious sphere!

What man would instead leave his wife

(if she beloved to him being)

Not with a conscious, loving gaze,

But rather with eyes closed, unseeing?

O let me not in benumbed sleep

Go to that void, that empty space!

O let me drink Earth’s sight like wine!

O let me leave seeing her face!