When death impersonal has taken lives,
unbounded sorrow stops at self-set pale
and only what sad heart allows arrives
to beat upon sustaining comfort frail.

No foreordained concluding life event,
however young or old the lost may be,
can take away desire that love prevent
fulfillment of unstoppable decree.

With thanks remember doing all the good
that opportunity gave chance to do
and undertake to see whatever should
call forth glad generosity anew.

Fear not some waiting specter in the land
but cherish own redeeming near at hand.

-Robert Stone, 16 December 2012