Poem Index
What is Dying?


A ship sails and I stand watching
till she fades on the horizon,
and someone at my side says,
"She is gone."
Gone where?
Gone from my sight, that is all.
She is just as large as when I saw her...
The diminished size and total loss of sight
is in me, not in her.
And just at the moment when someone at my side says,
"She is gone,"
there are others who are watching her coming,
and other voices take up a glad shout,
"Here she comes!"
... and that is dying.

by Bishop Brent