theme and variations

Because this blog seems to be meditating on mortality lately.

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The Dead Do Not Want Us Dead

The dead do not want us dead;
such petty errors are left for the living.
Nor do they want our mourning.
No gift to them - not rage, not weeping.
Return one of them, any one of them, to the earth,
and look: such foolish skipping,
such telling of bad jokes, such feasting!
Even a cucumber, even a single anise seed; feasting.


September 15, 2001

(Jane Hirshfield)
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