Please sing to me Until your voices join In a slow dance of notes Moving together across the room Like just one note Like just one voice
Sing easy songs Repeated with few words So everybody gets the gist It’s the singing that’s the thing
Sing Until your throat fills with notes Until your voice reminds you That you can still grow That you can swell & fill spaces you didn’t know existed That you can be as brave And full As your sound is
Play me tunes and songs Many songs!! Martin Hayes for where I came from, & how the old renews Nessi Gomes for we are All related And maybe “Love is in the air” Or some other frothy fare That everyone can dance to
Let there be clapping & much dancing too If spirit takes you, Let there be laughter Bad puns, old jokes Hokey anecdotes & story
Read a poem to me Or maybe three A Mary Oliver for sure And maybe David Whyte The third is dealer’s choice Let the poems be beautiful Bringing sweetness in the mouth To remind us all of The bounce & dance of words Of the bounce & dance of life The going up & travelling down
Dress for me Wear your brightest shirts, & paint your nails Let your bangles clack & your earrings dangle Drench yourself in perfumes Drench yourself in the colour of your life Dress with texture & with pleasure Be glorious & fizz with me One last time
Do not bring me to mass Or bury me under the grass For catholicism is not my creed It does not know me & I have no truck with it How could I, after all it did? (But that, dear friends, is another poem)
Please lay me out In a place that has beauty Bring flowers & berries for my coffin Not fancy ones, just from the garden If it’s spring, some tulips and scented hyacinths To welcome me back to my earthly bed
Cremate me Somewhere lovely Let the fires take me Happily
Then bring me to the woods & leave me with the trees To begin again In other forms & fancies
This earth life is lovely Sharp & short Though at the end We grieve the death Of dancing in this form Let’s honour all our messy joys
Let’s value in our dying What we love in living Slicing through the sadness Into luscious life
Instead of a letter of wishes I give you this, In Dublin, March 2023 Being sound & space In body
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