Prayer for an easy passing

I wrote this for my grandmother. She passed two days later, drawing her last breath as her daughters finished singing “How Great Thou Art.” We should all be so lucky as to be carried over in a boat of love and song.

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Nine times nine do I cry out,
wavelord, and nine times nine
do I touch my lips, my fingertips
wet and vital
with the body’s salt.

As the ocean is without beginning,
and without end,
so is love,
passing ever and always
the many points it has known
and will ever know.

As the ocean is without beginning,
and without end,
so is time,
turning and returning
in its ever-renewing course,
a cycle of abundant eternity.

As the ocean is without beginning,
and without end,
so is life,
for as we enter another passes,
and as we die another is born,
so life is never ceasing,
never departing,
but only rolling ever on
in swell and crash,
in crest and trough,
in foaming wave and endless deep.

May she go forth in peace,
and may she reach her ancestors
with open heart and glad hand.
Then may we look to the heavens
and see the warmth of her joyful welcome
beaming across space and centuries,
a beacon that calls.

In memoriam Kaye Love Clark Martino, May 2, 1933 – May 14, 2019

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