I received the wonderful poem today from Kelliwv---just wanted to share with everyone! Thanks so much Kelli!!!!! How about this? (I would enclose two lollipops, for obvious reasons :) ) Valentine's Day is for lovers, Or so the story goes, So let's all get together And make sure that everyone knows! Bring your favorite sweetheart And also bring a treat; Something rich and decadent, Your favorite kind of sweet! Until then here are lollipops, One for you and one for your love, To remind you of those sweet daily blessings We receive from the Lord above! Hope this helps! Kelliwv

So many poets; there are a number of male poets who wrote of death. Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, Carlos Williams, e.e. cummings, Dylan Thomas (Do not go gently into that good night). Without knowing the people involved here, I would throw out this touching end to a long poem: [Yet when we meet we seem in silence to say, Pretending serene forgetfulness of our youth, "Do you remember but then why should you remember! Do you remember a certain day, Or evening rather, spring evening long ago, We talked of death, and love, and time, and truth, And said such wise things, things that amused us so How foolish we were, who thought ourselves so wise!" And then we laugh, with shadows in our eyes.] --Conrad Aiken, Nocturne of Remembered Spring. or this: [The world is too much with us ; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers : Little we see in Nature that is ours ; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon ! This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon ; The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers ; For this, for everything, we are out of tune ; It moves us not.  Great God ! IÂd rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn ; So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn ; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea ; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.] --William Wordsworth Or, [Epitaph by Sir Walter Ralegh Even such is Time, which takes in trust Our youth, our joys, and all we have, And pays us but with age and dust; Who in the dark and silent grave, When we have wandered all our ways, Shuts up the story of our days: And from which earth, and grave, and dust, The Lord shall raise me up, I trust.] There's a popular one that ends "...Twas Heaven Here with You." that I can't find. Here's a place to start a search. Here is a link that might be useful: Poets' Graves

Here are a few that I gathered following my mother's passing: Afterglow Author Unknown I'd like the memory of me to be a happy one. I'd like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done. I'd like to leave an echo, whispering down the way, of happy times, and laughing times, of bright and sunny days. I'd like the tears of those who grieve to dry before the sun, with happy memories that I leave, when life is done. ----------------------------------- Fill not your hearts with pain and sorrow but remember me in every tomorrow Remember the joy, the laughter, and the smiles I've only gone to rest for a little while Although my leaving causes pain and grief my going has eased my hurt and given me relief So dry your eyes and remember me not as I am now, but as I used to be Because, I will remember you all and look on with a smile Understand, in your hearts I've only gone to rest a little while As long as I have the love of each of you I can live my life in the hearts of all of you ------------------------------ Miss me but let me go When I come to the end of the road And the sun has set for me I want no rites in a gloom-filled room. Why cry for a soul set free? Miss me a little--but not too long And not with your head bowed low. Remember the love that we once shared, Miss me--but let me go. For this is a journey that we all must take And each must go alone. It's all a part of the Master's plan, A step on the road to home. When you are lonely and sick of heart Go to the friends we know And bury your sorrows in doing good deeds. Miss Me--But Let me Go! ---------------------------- Those we love don't go away, They walk beside us everyday, Unseen, unheard, but always near, Still loved, still missed, so very dear.

Jankin, I know this isn't what you specifically wanted, but I think it's one of the best - if not THE best, from VETERIS VESTIGIAE FLAMMAE - the set of poems he wrote after Emma's death in (I think) 1912. When my ex-husband died 18 moths ago, I couldn't stop reciting it to myself. After a Journey Hereto I come to view a voiceless ghost; Whither, O whither will its whim now draw me? Up the cliff, down, till I'm lonely, lost, And the unseen waters' ejaculations awe me. Where you will next be there's no knowing, Facing round about me everywhere, With your nut-coloured hair, And gray eyes, and rose-flush coming and going. Yes: I have re-entered your olden haunts at last; Through the years, through the dead scenes I have tracked you; What have you now found to say of our past  Scanned across the dark space wherein I have lacked you? Summer gave us sweets, but autumn wrought division? Things were not lastly as firstly well With us twain, you tell? But all's closed now, despite Time's derision. I see what you are doing: you are leading me on To the spots we knew when we haunted here together, The waterfall, above which the mist-bow shone At the then fair hour in the then fair weather, And the cave just under, with a voice still so hollow That it seems to call out to me from forty years ago, When you were all aglow, And not the thin ghost that I now frailly follow! Ignorant of what there is flitting here to see, The waked birds preen and the seals flop lazily, Soon you will have, Dear, to vanish from me, For the stars close their shutters and the dawn whitens hazily. Trust me, I mind not, though Life lours, The bringing me here; nay, bring me here again! I am just the same as when Our days were a joy, and our paths through flowers. Hardy