They Are Not Dead

“They Are Not Dead” is a popular funeral reading.

They are not dead,
Who leave us this great heritage of remembering joy.

They still live in our hearts,
In the happiness we knew, in the dreams we shared.

They still breathe,
In the lingering fragrance, windblown, from their favourite flowers.

They still smile in the moonlight’s silver,
And laugh in the sunlight’s sparking gold.

They still speak in the echoes of the words we’ve heard them say again and again.

They still move,
In the rhythm of waving grasses, in the dance of the tossing branches.

They are not dead;
Their memory is warm in our hearts, comfort in our sorrow.

They are not apart from us, but part of us,

For love is eternal,
And those we love shall be with us throughout all eternity.

Author Unknown, A Popular Funeral Reading

Graveyard

This is the second poem called “They Are Not Dead” written by Francis Duggan.

They Are Not Dead

They are not dead though all others tell you they are since you meet and talk to them every day
They are no different to the living friends you once knew who from you nowadays does live far away

They are deceased to you in body only but in your mind as living they do remain
They have not died if in you they are living though when i tell you this you ask me please explain

In your mind they remain as young and vibrant they will be with you until the day they die
That they ceased to live with the death of their bodies your memories of them to this gives the lie

They will only die on the day your body does die in some future day whenever that may be
Until then every day you will meet them as they are living in your memory

They have not aged though physically you grow older as they were to you they do remain
Though the passing of the years are telling on you on memory road when you meet them again

They have not aged they are now as they once were whilst time itself has left it’s mark on you
That since their bodily death in your mind they have not aged and the bodily living like you are aging too

They are not dead though others tell you they are since i meet them often though not every day
I know that in me they will remain living for as long as the gift of life in me will stay.

— Francis Duggan