https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQEEfsOrAEQ
[ Nota Bene : The following was written for all those tragically lost to natural disasters aggravated by Climate Change since last Easter. May you rest in peace. We owe it to your memory to take courage, tell the truth and continue to strive to prevent further, increasing calamity from wild weather, failed rains and poor harvests. ]
Dying is hard work.
The arched back, the retching, the scrambling,
screaming in agony,
the gasp,
the panic
to keep body and soul together.
From first breath, first sore gum,
through grazed knees, peer humiliation,
learnings and forgettings,
broken bones and broken hearts.
The work of living,
pain, just a signpost on the road to flourishing.
The force for better things.
Stature and gain.
But there are laws, laws of Nature, Laws of Physics,
All things tend to chaos.
We do not die, we fall apart.
Somehow the body soldiers on,
even when the mind has stopped chattering.
The pump slows, the murmuring becomes indistinct,
but even to the end, Doctor Life practises
the higher Law of Physic.
Life wants to be more than this.
This we see each Northern Spring,
the rush to push upwards, desperate flowers,
shouting birds and stretching leaves,
all in a statement of awakening.
There are those who cheat Death,
and after a terminal tango with the old boneshaker
breath once more, and rise on wings like eagles.
This rule is at work –
the scar that heals the punctured skin,
time’s bridges over emotion’s chasm,
children, chicks, kids, lambs, bounteous replication,
redemption through division.
Love, you lie curled and cold,
Under the writhing soil and shaking trees.
The juices stopped, the limbs no longer twisted.
Your brave vigour spent.
Yet the Moon, silver, rises,
and floods the darkness.
Life wants to be more than this.
St John’s Passion
J. S. Bach
Ruht wohl, ruht wohl, ihr heiligen Gebeine,
die ich nun weiter nicht beweine;
ruht wohl und bringt auch mich zur Ruh.
Das Grab so euch bestimmet ist
und ferner keine Not umschliesst,
macht mir den Himmel auf und schliesst die Hölle zu.