poem3

Stairway to Heaven
They say memories are golden,
Well, maybe that is true;
I never wanted memories,
I only wanted you.
A million times I needed you,
A million times I cried;
If love alone could have saved you,
You never would have died.
In life I loved you dearly,
In death I love you still;
In my heart you hold a piece
No one could ever fill.
If tears could build a stairway
And heartache make a lane;
I'd walk the path to heaven
And bring you back again.
Our family chain is broken,
and nothing seems the same;
But as God calls us one by one,
The chain will link again.

Heaven's Playground

Brightly colored rainbows sitting on clouds of hearts abound,
gazing at the sweet light that holds dreams in the distance,
perched on the shoreline of the sparking colored lake;
amazed at how our lives can change in a flash of a instance.

His eyes filled with wander at a place as glorious as paradise,
not knowing why but everything feels just right,
as he discovers his soul filled with excitement and joy;
rejoicing as he sits in the presence of the Lord.

Loving aspirations of a world absent of pain and sorrow,
leaving behind a family who takes comfort in knowing there is a tomorrow;
Softly sitting in the fields of tulips and daisies while watching the Angels playing off in sweet abyss;
Realizing there is a brighter life for him here and it can get no sweeter than this.

Butterflies fluttering on breezes of truth,
surrounded by souls that innocence can not forget;
Reaching up he discovers the subtleties of a life gone by,
realizing all the time he too knows how to fly.

Soaring up in the clouds with wings open wide,
immensely colored horizons stretching out beyond the eye,
sweetly kissed with the presence of pure delight as he waits patiently for his family to make there way through the tunnel in the sky.

by: Elizabeth Stewart

If We Could Have You Back

If we could have you back for just one day,
There would be so many things we would like to say.
If we could just be with you for one whole day,
to have you close and know that you really are okay.

If we had known that you would be gone forever,
If we had known all those ties were going to be severed,
If we had known the pain, the loss, and the ache,
if we had known the difference without you would make.

In the darkness you slipped away from us all,
Now it's just your memories that we have to recall,
They say that parting is such sweet sorrow,
But it's the longing, the wondering, and how to cope with tomorrow.

They say that grieving a child is very worst,
Cause life's plan is that the parents should go first.
Now all we have are memories, the good times that we had,
We spend so much time in tears, and pain and feeling sad.

So if we could have you back for just one day,
You could let us know to cope until that judgement day.
When we'll be together as a family once again,
When we'll all be happy and free from all this pain.

Oh ! It's so hard to live when your child has to die,
Then we spend our lifetime trying to say Goodbye!

We think of you in silence
And often speak your name,
But all that's left to answer
Is your picture in a frame!
If we could have one lifetime wish,
One dream that would come True,
We would pray to God with
All our hearts for yesterday and you!

Choosing Life

"It will never be the same. Never." As a bereaved parent, you have often heard or said these words to express grief's profound feelings of sorrow and disorientation. Your life has suddenly taken an unexpected course that appears both uncharted and endless. Bewildered, you vainly search for pathways back to your former life, until you confront the reality that there is no way back. Your child is dead forever. It is then that you may say, ".never the same." This is the aspect of grief that Simon Stephens calls "The Valley of the Shadow." It is that very long time between the death of your child and your reinvestment in life. Between. It is not supposed to be a permanent resting place. Although some people do take up residence in the valley, it is a transition from the death of your child to life with renewed purpose.

The key to this transition is yourself. You must choose between life and the valley. You and only you can decide. And you must make that decision again and again, each day.

Giving in to the hopelessness of the valley is tempting. Choosing to move on toward life requires a great deal of work. You must struggle with the pain of grief in order to resolve it. It is a daily struggle full of tears, anger, guilt and self-doubt, but it is the only alternative to surrendering yourself to the valley.

Little by little you choose to move on. Little by little you progress toward the other side of the valley. It takes a very long time, far longer than your friends or relatives suspected. Far longer than you had believed - even prayed - that it would be. When one day you find yourself able to do more than choose merely to live but also how to live, you will know you are leaving the valley of the shadow. There will still be more work to do, more struggle and choosing. The valley, however, stretches behind rather than in front of you.

When you have resolved your grief by reinvesting in life, you will be able to realize that nothing is ever "the same." Life is change. We would not have it be otherwise, for that is the valley of the shadow. Change has the promise of beginning and the excitement of discovery.

Life is never the same. Life is change. Choose life!

Marcia F. Alig

Lullaby Land

You strain your ears to catch a note
That drifts in cadence soft and low
From out the heaven land remote
Where all the little children go

And often, in your dreams you hear
In echoes, gently sweetly flung
Some simple song, in accents clear
Your little one would have sung

And so from out the shadows shore
God hands to you the golden key
With which you may unlock the door
Of sacred, hallow memory

And from within a smiling face
Before your eager vision stands
And you may feel the glad embrace
Of dimpled, loving baby hands