Reflecting on the passing of a friend,

It’s hard to pass the sorrow of the day.

With all the thoughts that sadness will not end;

No matter how you seek to find a way.

The pulsing pain that pierces like a dart

To stab you and constrain your happiness

In mournful clouds of bitter mental strife;

You strive to strike apart

These shackles so that you can then address,

The joys that would define a happy life.

 

Though friends may leave you and have left behind,

A gaping void that kith and kin lament.

You need to work your way through grief to find

Some solace in the way their life was spent.

Pay homage to their major influence

On you and many others in their life;

Consoling you when times of trouble came,

That you might gain a sense

Of order when such turbulence was rife,

So harmony was easier to reclaim.

 

Refuse to dwell upon the loss of life,

Nor wonder how you’ll fill the emptiness;

For brooding merely helps to twist the knife,

And with such gloom serves only to depress.

Embrace the things that set this one apart,

To set them thus so high in your esteems;

And keep the memory of your treasured friend

With fondness in your heart,

So that however black the shadow seems,

Your friendship’s light the darkness will transcend.