Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you planned:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
- Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)
3 comments:
My first tears of the day. Beautiful, spd. I remember when the City first lit the beams 6 months after 9/11. For 30 nights, those two powerful blue lights reached to the heavens against the evening sky, and could be seen for miles around by young and old. It was a thing of a beauty, of sadness, and of comfort to have a marker in the sky once again where the towers once stood. For me, it would have been the only lasting memorial necessary.
The Tribute of Lights shine only once a year now but we will always remember.
What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be;
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering;
In the faith that looks through death,
In years that bring the philosophic mind.
(Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood, Wm. Wordsworth)
Very nice, Portia.
Dry your tears, friend.
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