Here lies Jonson with the rest
Of the poets; but the best.
Reader, would'st thou more have known?
Ask his story, not this stone.
That will speak what this can't tell
Of his glory. So farewell.
You never claimed to know it all
For what you believed in, you stood tall
Taking no sides with foes nor friends
But with equal rights and justice
You did your due diligence to all
Never minding what could you befall
Many battles you had to fight
Many foes you did put to flight
In an ocean of accusations
......
HERE lies, now a prey to insulting neglect,
What once was a butterfly, gay in life's beam:
Want only of wisdom denied her respect,
Want only of goodness denied her esteem.
IN wood and wild, ye warbling throng,
Your heavy loss deplore;
Now, half extinct your powers of song,
Sweet Echo is no more.
Ye jarring, screeching things around,
Scream your discordant joys;
Now, half your din of tuneless sound
With Echo silent lies.
When I am dead, carve this upon my stone:
Here lies a woman, fit root for flower and tree,
Whose living flesh, now mouldering round the bone,
Wants nothing more than this for immortality,
That in her heart, where love so long unfruited lay
A seed for grass or weed shall grow,
And push to light and air its heedless way;
That she who lies here dead may know
Through all the putrid marrow of her bones
The searing pangs of birth,
......
You never claimed to know it all
For what you believed in, you stood tall
Taking no sides with foes nor friends
But with equal rights and justice
You did your due diligence to all
Never minding what could you befall
Many battles you had to fight
Many foes you did put to flight
In an ocean of accusations
......
I didn't die:
the poetry
and the music
still dwells
in my inside-
a monument
so beautifully
constructed for me
there to reside
distilled with billions
......
Here lies a spirit
once vibrant and alive
now resting in the earth,
echoes of laughter linger,
memories weave through the silence,
a journey complete
Yet forever part of the wind
whispering softly
in the hearts left behind.
Epitaph
Time will tell how you lived.
A lot will happen later.
The one you prayed to will take you.
A stone slab will decorate your headboard.
Are you afraid of death?
Do you think about the row of stone alleys?
With your memorial stone right where you stand,
......
IN wood and wild, ye warbling throng,
Your heavy loss deplore;
Now, half extinct your powers of song,
Sweet Echo is no more.
Ye jarring, screeching things around,
Scream your discordant joys;
Now, half your din of tuneless sound
With Echo silent lies.