What possessed us <br />to be so calm, <br />the frigid ocean below <br />about to take us in its jaws? <br /> <br />We were not extraordinary men, <br />not particularly religious men, <br /> <br />but when our minds <br />saw what was coming, <br />we gathered as one <br />and began to play. <br /> <br />A friend had told me <br />how once after his orchstra <br />played the Pastoral Symphony <br />the members had to shake their heads <br />to dispel the notion <br />that they were in the middle of a forest. <br /> <br />So we all were seized <br />by a great calm, <br />already not of this world. <br />The music became a bridge <br />over the waters, <br />over time and space, <br />over what we know as death, <br /> <br />which still you walk on <br />as you hum the melody.<br /><br />Max Reif<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/nearer-my-god-to-thee-2/
