Death Is Nothing
Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away
into the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other
that we are still.
Call me by my old familiar name,
speak to me
in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as you always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, and pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household
word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effort,
without the ghost of shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was;
There is absolutely unbroken continuity.
What is this death but a negligible accident?
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval,
somewhere very near,
just around the corner.
All is well.
