Elegy I

The clouds have brought us into shade,

But light lives on in every hour

It glows in every leaf and flower

And all the pastures it has made.

The stream is caught by winter’s freeze

But water lives in spite of weather,

In sun and snow it dwells forever

As nightly dew upon the trees.

You are not gone. Love never yields,

You live in memory and mist

That summer drew up with a kiss

And blew out onto heaven's fields.

Elegy II

The minutes we had now feel so small,

But in this grief I can be glad

For I have learnt, in times this bad,

A minute is better than nothing at all.

Though happiness appears to hide,

I cannot question the hand of love

That made you, and from up above

Plucked and placed you by His side.

I cannot put in words your worth,

Between these lines, I find no way,

The only certainty I say:

You were like heaven, not this earth.

Elegy III

It’s not for me to say, ‘too soon’,

Your time on earth was just a loan

From the hand that brought you home,

Just as each dawn He hides the moon,

That does not crumble into dust

But rises every evening time

As surely as the sun will climb,

And He has guided you, I trust.

Though I’m not happy you are gone

I’m happy you are not alone,

And have, in heaven, found your home,

On pastures where you do belong.