PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

1

Arrange my funeral according to

the joy of the Orthodox Faith, the Common Salvation

which is and shall be our souls' chief exultation,

among the Orthodox Church, Christ's great congregation;

and the comfort of the ancient spirituality:

beyond the reach of human perfidy (that has long appalled)

above and beyond this lost world's mockery.

To that Faith, witnessed in my poetry;

the Faith that has informed my conversation.

With this, please console my loved ones; I ask of you.

2

That narrow plot of grass in the landscape of that

rural cemetery will be sufficient.   On a flat plate or

headstone, place the image of the three-barred Cross, 

that I have revered as a sign of assured Salvation;

then the final form of my appellation---

Starward-Led---

and then below that, my mundane name

(which the world sought so often to shame;

prejudice and prudery attempting to cause me a loss

of confidence) and dates of my entrance and exit.

That carcass beneath the sod, by death undone,

will not in any way be me;

freed of all this earthly existence's afflictions,

my soul will soar

starward to the Kingdom of God's Son,

where I have already been seated,

even before my pilgrimage has completed.

This is my very final wish---

this last request (here, again, repeated)---

signed with electronic signature, below

and affixed below it, my customary mark:

Starward-Led, an Orthodox Christian

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