A gentle touch upon the forearm <br />with a hand, gloved or warm with life, <br /> <br />outside the church door; <br />turning away from the open grave; <br />by that concrete place <br />where they lay the floral tributes <br />by the cemetery chapel; <br />or later, as you hand the food around; <br /> <br />a gentle touch upon the forearm <br />or a hand sought for to squeeze and hold; or <br />man to man, they favour a shoulder briefly gripped, <br />as if that’s the pressure point <br />where empathetic camaraderie should be applied; <br /> <br />the single sentence of consolation, <br />sometimes so well rehearsed, it comes out awkwardly – <br />‘she’ll be much missed…’ <br />‘you have so many memories…’ <br />‘he’ll always be there in our hearts…’ <br />‘if there’s anything…’ <br /> <br />they’ve been through this, themselves, <br />or fear the time they shall – <br /> <br />…‘words must be said, <br />but yet there are no words for this; <br />accept then, these few words <br />in lieu of that deep silence <br />which is itself in lieu of words…’ <br /> <br />* * * <br /> <br />measured, immutable, as precise <br />as any equation of the calculated world, <br />the heart’s memories: <br />every moment that our heart in many years <br />opened to them, the heart has stored. <br /> <br />We know the mind can span the imagined world – <br />from travel brochures to the thought of heaven; <br />yet we forget that greater still, the heart is vast – <br />there’s all the room for them to live on there, <br />sustained by every moment of love freely given; for <br />the whole creation is one single act of love. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />[written for a bereavement website]<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/living-in-the-heart-s-memory/
