There was a man — and look, he is no more.
He died before his time.
The music of his life suddenly stopped.
A pity! There was another song in him.
Now it is lost
forever.
Now it is lost
forever.

“After my Death” by Chaim Nachman Bialik

I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise,
Regardless of others, ever regardful of others,
Maternal as well as
Paternal, a child as well as a man,
Stuff’d with the stuff that is coarse and stuff’d
with the stuff that is fine

I bequeath myself to the dirt
To grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again, look for me
Under your boot soles

You will hardly know who I am or
What I mean,
But I shall be good health to
you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.

-- Walt Whitman

An honest man here lies at rest,
As God with His image blest:
The friend of man, the friend of truth;
The friend of age, and guide of youth:
Few hearts like his, with virtue warm’d.
Few heads with knowledge so inform’d:
If there’s another world,
He lives in bliss;
If there is none, he made the
Best of this.
- Robert Burns

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning hush
I am the swift uplifting rush.

Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.
- Mary Elizabeth Frye

Death ends a life, not a
Relationship. All the love you
Created is still there. All the
Memories are still there. You
Live on- in the hearts of everyone you have touched
And nurtured while you were here.
- Morrie Schwartz

I’d like the memory of me
to be a happy one
I’d like to leave an afterglow
Of smiles when day is done.

I’d like to leave an echo
Whispering softly down the ways
of happy times and laughing times
and bright and sunny days.

I’d like the tears of those who
grieve, to dry before the sun
of happy memories that I leave
behind when life is done.

-- “Afterglow” by Helen Lowrie Marshall

In the end, it’s not about how we die, but how we live.
- Joe Abercrombie, “Last Argument of Kings”

We do not remember days, we remember moments.
- Cesare Pavese

Don’t cry because it’s over,
smile because it happened.
- Dr. Seuss - “Kids Can Fly”

We are all stories in the end.
- The Doctor Matt Smith

Only time and tears take away grief;
That is what they are for
So it’s true, when all is said and done,
Grief is the price we pay for love.
I will not say: do not weep;
For not all tears are an evil
The weird, weird thing
About devastating loss is
That life actually goes on.

- Terry Pratchett, “I Shall Wear Midnight”

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my
Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my
Talk, my song;
I thought that love would
Last forever: I was wrong.

“Funeral Blues” from the book “Another Time “ by W. H. Auden