How do you say, “Goodbye”?

How do you say, "Goodbye"?


How do you say goodbye
When you know you are going to die?

What goes through the mind of ending,
When left behind is still unbending?

Is confidence betrayed by tears,
When remembering all those years?

Words unsaid, or maybe fully so,
Regardless - either runs to and fro.

To sigh the last and close the eyes,
One last breath and one's future does arise.

The seeming terrible naught is replaced,
By the living still with redeeming grace.

Memories only, bad and great,
Silence is replaced at the gate.

Is silence peace? Nay, peace is stillness.
Some have referred to as mental illness.

No matter, their evidence is their loss,
When this "mental illness" becomes their cross.

Courage is not for the foolhardy only,
For even the foolhardy get lonely.

Then where is their courage but garnered within?
With the "mental illness" - to their chagrin.

It has been said, "Life goes on."
And so it will, as will the next dawn.

Silent tears, reserved by the loved,
Having known one was not UN-loved.

Proof ongoing that love is everlasting,
Beyond life and death, far surpassing,

Any and all that we know or believed,
That of love - courage with stillness - is fully relieved.

My mom lived for 87 years,
Filled with toil, laughter and tears.

Mixed within, she bore 4 children, I am one.
Raised all with stepchildren, our characters won.

There is no legacy the world will, of her, know,
But in my heart, her presence will ever glow.

Her vital presence, the character of love,
Gave me proof of heaven above.

What she taught with her love and her life,
Brought me through times of darkest strife.

For even the smallest amount of love can redeem,
The darkest of hearts unto a bright gleam.

The stars await you, mom, as they do for us all,
For each of us who only love, and hear the faint call.

So in the quietest of nights, I look up and see,
Promise of one love star, waiting for me.

I do not wish death, but come I cannot disperse,
For each in their time, comes the star's hearse.

So I value love above all that I endeavor,
Because she was living proof, that love is forever.


Not "Goodbye", Mom - but someday - "I will see you on the other side."

In loving dedication:

Louise Mary (Deak) Moore
September 21, 1913 - January 23, 2003



Your son, James A. Eisweirth
Copyright © 2003 James Anthony Eisweirth