A Celebration of Life

I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship, at my side, spreads her white sails
to the moving breeze and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength.

I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs
like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky
come to mingle with each other.
Then, someone at my side says, ‘There, she is gone.’

Gone where?
Gone from my sight. That is all.
She is just as large in mast, hull and spar
as she was when she left my side.
And, she is just as able to bear her load
of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me — not in her.

And, just at the moment when someone says,
‘There, she is gone,’ there are other eyes
watching her coming, and other voices ready
to take up the glad shout, ‘Here she comes!’
And that is dying…