The gift of life is never more or less.
Dimitri Shostakovich

The gift of life is never more or less.
Either days or years are merely moments.
Reverence remains the source of bliss.
More memories do not increase remembrance.
If death must early come, then let it be
Nor more nor less than if it had come late:
A part of a much larger mystery,
Leaving wind and wisdom in its wake.
Longing is the music of our sphere,
Yearning for a time past time and space
In which all that we love is ever here,
Love everlasting, which is now our grace,
Living with us more than we can bear.

In eighth grade my best friend passed away.
Dimitri Shostakovich

In eighth grade my best friend passed away.
He isn't gone, of course. I have him here
With me, within my heart, as I do always.
How beautiful that people are so dear
To one another! For all my life I'll love him.
Only one small part of us dies. The rest
Lives on in others. We are music within
Music. Nor do we ever hear the best
Of us, which sings in other hearts, a chorus
Of angels! However much I miss him, he sings
Here now, my friend, in me, to you, for us,
Still breathing in the beauty that he brings.
Love lives forever passed along, and we
All are blessed to live, to love, to be.