Funeral Poems For A Brother

by Misty D. Crawford

I love you and I wish you were home,
it hurts me to think you’re so alone.
Its not the same without you here,
why you did what you did is still unclear.
I remember when we were little and we played in the yard,
then we’d go sit inside and play cards.
You’d look at me and smile,
your smile used to stretch a mile.
When I had a bad day you were the only on who could make me laugh,
its like you were my other half.
It hurts me to see what your going through,
it hurts even more because there’s nothing I can do.
I just wish I could make it all ok,
but all I can do is pray.
I pray for you every night before I go to sleep,
and every time I think I hear you creep.
Sometimes its like you’re still here,
I look at the door and wait for you to appear.
Then I realize you’re not home,
and I go back to feeling so alone.
I love you so much you just don’t know,
no matter what you’ll always be my little bro.

by Toni L. Oleson

At first I have to admit I was jealous but just for a short bit
Mom and dad looked at you with pride
My jealousy made me feel put aside
For this I feel no shame, that’s just a Childs game
As time went on nature came through my pride, love and a bond grew
Still only my brother not yet a friend
I was your big sister to the end
Soon my childish jealousy I overcame, I’m not saying there was none
He just wants you to play, I can still hear mom say
But he’s too little I would say he doesn’t know how to play and he’s always in my way
Mom he follows me around all day he’s too little for my big girl play
He’s your little brother and he doesn’t just want to play your his big sister it’s your duty mom would say, to show your brother the right way
When he grows up for all this, with his love and loyalty he will pay.
So please my daughter show your brother how to play.
Pay back will be yours in time not so far away it was one of my life’s biggest tolls to play for you a good role.
But from that day to my life’s end you are not just my brother but my life’s greatest friend.

by Anne Harskamp

Words are hard to describe feelings,
I have always been better with images.
Yet writing down how much I miss you,
Seems to give me more tranquility.

Writing to let go, to give this all a place.
It will never heal, it will never go away,
But just learning to give it time and space.

I can tell you how much I care, how much I would give to have you back in my life,
But you know all of this and it won’t change anything, that’s what I am learning within time,

Writing to tell you how much I have learned, to show you that through fragility I become a stronger person
More able to understand, more able to listen and to care,
Hurt through loss, I’ve become yet a wiser person

by Amanda Restivo

I see your smile of the past
You would always make us laugh
Life was forever free
And you were all you could be
Then came time
There were burdens to share
Sadly those you could not bear
Deep within your mind you went
You became not who you truly were
Life became dark
The substance took over
Your eyes filled with tears
The pain was forever
The memories of the past are clear
And when we see tomorrow
You will be nowhere near
When we look for your smile
All we see is the sorrow
But what has happened has brought us close
The memories of your life will always live on
With the sparkle in your eyes
And a smile on your face
In our hearts you have filled a special place
So when we think of you
We will forever reflect back
To who you once were

by Constantine P. Cavafy

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,
pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the angry Poseidon – do not fear them:
You will never find such as these on your path,
if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine
emotion touches your spirit and your body.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the fierce Poseidon you will never encounter,
if you do not carry them within your soul,
if your soul does not set them up before you.

Pray that the road is long.
That the summer mornings are many, when,
with such pleasure, with such joy
you will enter ports seen for the first time;
stop at Phoenician markets,
and purchase fine merchandise,
mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensual perfumes of all kinds,
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
visit many Egyptian cities,
to learn and learn from scholars.

Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for many years;
and to anchor at the island when you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would have never set out on the road.
She has nothing more to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.
Wise as you have become, with so much experience,
you must already have understood what Ithaca means.

by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

by David Harkins

You can shed tears that he is gone
Or you can smile because he has lived

You can close your eyes and pray that he will come back
Or you can open your eyes and see all that he has left

Your heart can be empty because you can’t see him
Or you can be full of the love that you shared

You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday
Or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday

You can remember him and only that he is gone
Or you can cherish his memory and let it live on

You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back
Or you can do what he would want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

by W. H. Auden

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.

Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains,—but the best is lost.

The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,—
They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.

by T. Hutchinson

I wish you sweet sleep, my brother dear.
Although there’s so much that you’ve left bare
I hate that you had to endure such pain
On my mind, your saddened eyes have left a stain.

I want to know what crossed your mind
Unspoken words you’ve left behind
Undone things we’ll never do
No sharing thoughts you never knew.

A peace has fallen upon your head
A taste of sorrow we have been fed
It really is like a hole in our lives
One swiftly dug but carved out by knives.

But I have hope that those sleeping will rise
The Bible says that God will open their eyes.
No suffering, sickness, yes not even pain,
Those who did good, eternal life they’ll gain.

So… sleep on my brother, sleep tight
For now with you the sky is night.
But after night will come daybreak
Therefore I will wait hoping to see you awake.
For My Brother- Shelly Domenici
You left without
Warning.
Gone so fast.
Now all we have
Are memories
Of our past.

You are loved by so many.
You might not
Have known,
But in our hearts
Is where
You have grown.

The memories
I have throughout
The years
Will last
forever with
Laughter and tears.

We shared our
Birthday
Since I was five.
My wish now will be
To have you back healthy
And alive.

I will miss you
Oh so much.
So will all
The lives that
You have
Touched.

I can’t say goodbye.
I can’t accept
Your death.
You will live in my heart
Forever
Until my last breath.

by Author Unknown

Those we love remain with us
for love itself lives on,
And cherished memories never fade
Because a love one’s gone…
Those we love can never be
more than a thought apart
For as long as there is memory,
They’ll live on in the heart.

by Tamarah M. Olsen

My memories are what I have left,
and a lesson I will not forget.

The time has come when time is no more
and all that’s left was once before.

The memories so dear and true,
those memories of me and you.

Although we fell and stumbled at times,
all those hills were necessary climbs.

All the times when your heart shined through
are the greatest memories I have of you.

I will always remember you, brother of mine.
In my heart I will keep you, so I will be fine.

I will go forward with my head up high.
It might be hard, I cannot lie.

But in my heart you will be,
moving forward, you with me.

by Ellen Brenneman

Don’t think of him as gone away
his journey’s just begun,
life holds so many facets
this earth is only one.

Just think of him as resting
from the sorrows and the tears
in a place of warmth and comfort
where there are no days and years.
Think how he must be wishing
that we could know today
how nothing but our sadness
can really pass away.

And think of him as living
in the hearts of those he touched…
for nothing loved is ever lost
and he was loved so much.

by Joyce Grenfell

If I should go before the rest of you
Break not a flower
Nor inscribe a stone

Nor when I am gone
Speak in a Sunday voice
But be the usual selves
That I have known

Weep if you must
Parting is hell
But life goes on
So…sing as well

by Joyce Grenfell

And I’ve got to understand
You must release the ones you love
And let go of their hand.
I try and cope the best I can
But I’m missing you so much
If I could only see you
And once more feel your touch.
Yes, you’ve just walked on ahead of me
Don’t worry I’ll be fine
But now and then I swear I feel
Your hand slip into mine.

by Margaret Mead

To the living, I am gone,
To the sorrowful, I will never return,
To the angry, I was cheated,
But to the happy, I am at peace,
And to the faithful, I have never left.

I cannot speak, but I can listen.
I cannot be seen, but I can be heard.
So as you stand upon a shore gazing at a beautiful sea,
As you look upon a flower and admire its simplicity,
Remember me.

Remember me in your heart:
Your thoughts, and your memories,
Of the times we loved,
The times we cried,
The times we fought,
The times we laughed.
For if you always think of me, I will never have gone.

By sshe Shelley

Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep —

He hath awakened from the dream of life —
‘Tis we, who lost in stormy visions, keep
With phantoms an unprofitable strife,
And in mad trance, strike with our spirit’s knife
Invulnerable nothings. — We decay
Like corpses in a charnel; fear and grief
Convulse us and consume us day by day,
And cold hopes swarm like worms within our living clay.

The One remains, the many change and pass;
Heaven’s light forever shines, Earth’s shadows fly;

Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass,
Stains the white radiance of Eternity,
Until Death tramples it to fragments. — Die,
If thou wouldst be with that which thou dost seek!

Follow where all is fled!—Rome’s azure sky,
Flowers, ruins, statues, music, words, are weak
The glory they transfuse with fitting truth to speak.