h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Came across this, quite liked it until the end


Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Ho'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through the footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

John Gillespie McGee Jr (1922 - 1941)

Note: John Gillespie McGee Jr was an American spitfire pilot who joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1940. He died over Tangmere, Sussex in 1941. He was nineteen.

There was a poem I studied for my English A Level I really liked but I can't remember what who wrote it: I think it was called Cenotaph and contained the message don't waste your life worrying about the things you can't do or your weaknesses but live your life. That'd be quite apt.

Not strictly speaking a poem, though I'd rather have it read out rather than sang, is the Annie Lennox song they recorded but didn't use for Return of the King:

"Round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate
And thought I have passed them by a day must come
I will take the hidden path that runs
West of the Moon and East of the Sun
I'm glad that you are here with me, here at the end of all things

Night too shall be beautiful
And blessed and its fear will pass
I must leave, must cross the Sea
The love you gave is all I take with me

Use well the days, use well the days
Turn your face to the green world."

Dunno. I'd feel like a pompous twit requesting anything solemn and edifying.

And, truth be told, the funny and irreverent ones are pretty common, now, so they aren't nearly as quirky, surprising, original or amusing as lots of people tend to think they are.

So I don't really care. I can only assume that anyone who'd be bothered enough to pick one would know me well enough to pick something I'd dig (no pun intended).

I'd like everyone to know it's okay with me if they want to skip the boring parts and get straight to the kegger. Funerals are for the living, after all, and I won't be there.

We took my dads ashes to the North Wales coast on Saturday and threw them into the sea. I was surprised how many there were. I threw them in a big ark which then turned into a cloud of dust that enveloped me. We had gathered wild flowers and tied them into posies and threw them into the water too, once we threw the ashes in we jumped in and swam ourselves amongst the flowers. It was really good, there were no poems or songs just the sea but it felt right like something we would do. The funeral with its formality had felt really alien.

The death is nothing at all poem is really cheesy but we said it at the funeral anyway. There's something about the idea that the person who has died should still be part of your life that appealed. I rewrote it slightly so that it didn't refer to praying but it was nice to have something that people recognised as we had no prayers etc.

Choosing poems and passages between the death and the funeral when I could hardly concentrate or read was very hard and I think there is something to be said for specifying what you want in advance.

Ozymanidas, since I had to memorise it at the age of 11 in school.