"ALL SOULS" by May Sarton (A poem selected by Gray's brother,
Russ McGhee, and printed in the booklet for the memorial service in
July '98)
Did someone say that there would be an end, An end, Oh, an end to love
and mourning? Such voices speak when sleep and waking blend, The cold
bleak voices of the early morning When all the birds are dumb in dark
November - Remember and forget, forget, remember. After the
false night, warm true voices, wake! Voice of the dead that touches the
cold living, Through the pale sunlight once more gravely speak. Tell
me again, while the last leaves are falling: ''Dear child, what has been
once so interwoven Cannot be raveled, nor the gift ungiven.'' Now
the dead move through all of us still glowing, Mother and child, lover
and lover mated, Are wound and bound together and enflowing. What has
been plaited cannot be unplaited - Only the strands grow richer with
each loss And memory makes kings and queens of us.
Dark into light, light into darkness, spin. When all the birds have flown
to some real heaven, We who find shelter in the warmth within,
Listen, and feel new-cherished, new-forgiven, As the lost human voices
speak through us and blend Our complex love, our mourning without
end.
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