Poems of Narad

Place Her Softly Now - For my beloved Tehmi

Wipe the tears of sleep from aged eyes
No more to witness this world's joy and pain,
Close them gently let the spirit fly
To rest above the sorrows of this sphere
That turns upon a spindle moved by God.
For we, remaining, surely have been blessed
By those great spirits oft descended here
Who cast their godlike glance upon this scene
Of human folly where we in ignorance
Seek for love in barren fields of clay
And tormented deserts, parched and impotent.
Heaven's chosen in our lives appear
From an unknown hand bestowing gifts of grace
To lift our fallen heads that we may see
With upward gaze a greater destiny
Than mind can in its infancy perceive.

Lay her body softly down my friend
For in its lengthy journey from the stars,
The shock of entry into mortal birth
And battered by the blows of untold years,
Though stilled now it has borne its share
And moved the human nearer to the God.
Whether to the pyre or the earth
Consigned, this noble being drape in robes
Of royal hue to let the ages know
That she was one of ours, her very skin
Hung upon the same ingenious frame
That lifted man above his early form
To view the sun erect, with eyes and mind
Mark the passing of the faintest stars.

Her felicity from depths of wonder shone
And every movement bore the stamp of grace,
And from her lips encouragement to all
Who seek among this warring ego-kind
A nobler man to found a nobler race.
But she was far above our soil of grief,
Friend who dwelt immortal in our midst,
Aware in all the transience of days
Beneath a vault of blue unchanging sky
Of world on world beyond and realms of light
Which from her frail and failing frame she cast
As with her song and poetry to men.

Gather her up with light and careful hand,
Press not nor bruise the tender yielding flesh,
Lift her weightless in your arms of love,
This sacred vessel emptied now of soul
Raise above yourselves and honour give
To one who walked in our familiar paths
Yet kept her vision of the vast unseen
Alive and even with her final breath
Remembered one who is our destiny.

This light-filled chapter of the holy book
Now closed and silent in your silence pray
That all may grow towards the light she held
Shedding on our lives its splendid rays.
Let no trumpet break the silent morn
No choir thousand-voiced rise up in song
For one who bore with grace intransigence
And by example taught the law of love.
Place her softly now on beds of flowers
Dreaming of an earthly Paradise
And in the fragrance of this final hour
Consign her to eternity and God.