FUNERAL SERVICE

Our loss

Is gain in other times.

Our hopes on future bent

Must then depend on incidents like these.

For bodies wear

And in

The fine grist mill of time

Are spent in service such

As yours

And go, our time by smallest time

Into the yesterday wherein began

The conquest of Eternity.

 

What did we know

When yesterday we wept?

What grip upon us had our ignorance

That we in our conceit did feel

That all of us were mortal here

And lives once led were spent

And wasted on our selfish selves?

 

How narrow is such scope

To feel that we

Should be eternally

The goal of all the toil

And wretchedness

From birth to death

And like a play

The curtain dropped

And left an empty stage.

How dull of us to feel that we

Were all the target of this strife

And that we lived but once

And living then did reconcile

The whole in one brief life.

 

Oh no, a wider drama here

Was planned and staged

And we with narrowness of mind

Did overlook the plan.

 

We said that all is

Mortal flesh

The spirit just a thing

To send, for pence

To some strange heaven

There to waste its skill.

Or, had we not the price,

To some deep other place

To pain, and waste again

The life.

To what dark depths

Were dropped our minds

To feel that flesh

Is capable of love or trust or livingness,

To feel that fingernails and masks

Are all we need to dream?

To what deep place

Did our love go

That mass could recompense?

 

Anxieties that ruled our years

Were nurtured here.

And we

Made blind and numb

By other greed

Spanned down our lives

To One.

What waste!

To feel that all our love

Our work,

Our gifts,

Our knowledge and our

Sighs

Were meant

To be consumed

All in one

Breath and flash

And by one name?

 

Today, come wiser now

The chains gone weak

And tyranny of cult

Gone tired with the years,

We look

We find we live

Not once

But on and on

From body’s birth to

Body’s grave and then

To birth again

And yea to grave again

So to dispose possessions

Oft come undone

With livingness.

 

From century to century

From age to age and on

We go in march along

The path that leads

Forever up the countless

Ticks of time.

We crawl, we walk, we fly

We win

From here and evermore

The heritage of all our lives

And spend it once again.

 

Why this is no sad and

Bleakish look,

No sorrowed thing

This life.

This an adventure pure

Where without knife or

Provender we leap

Aloft into eternity

And span forever in a breath.

This is adventure where

We step from tie to

Body tie

And go

Our way.

 

Our suff’ring is

Self-centered here

For we have lost,

In truth,

The smile,

The touch,

The skill and happiness

We gained

From (person’s name)

Who gave to us

From (his/her) past

Ability to live

And fare against

The tides and storms of fate.

It’s true we’ve lost

(His/her) shoulder

Up against the wheel

And lost as well (his/her) counsel

And (his/her) strength

But lost them

Only for a while.

 

(He/she) goes

Not with the dismal roll drum

But with a whisper like

A Faery’s sigh

To smooth the way

For when we come.

(He/she)’ll be in some good

Future time

And future place

(His/her) smile

(His/her) touch

(His/her) skill

Invested there to make

A way for life.

 

True, true we may not

Know (him/her) then and

Only know (his/her) work.

But still

If we sent not ahead

Our vedettes into time

We would not have

A race.

 

And so, branched off from

This

Genetic Line

And into some new

Corner or new world,

We’ve sent you, (person’s name),

And there there’ll be

We know it now,

A smile,

A touch,

A happiness for us

And you

You could not find

On Earth.

And so it turns,

The day, the year,

The age.

And so we go

With banners furled

And quietly

Upon our way.

But now we know

And now we’ll find

The Way.

 

Into the dark

Has come the light

Into tomorrow

Enters night

Into heaven

Go no more.

Into life our

Spirits soar

Conquering ever

Wisdom’s store

We do not tremble

Faced with death

We know that living

Is not breath.

 

Prevail!

 

Go, (person’s name)

And take

The life

That offers now

And live

In good expectancy

That we

Will do our part.

Go, (person’s name)

You can control

That which you must.

 

Our loss

Is gain

In wisdom and in skill

To future dates and other smiles

And so we send into the

Chain of all enduring time

Our heritage

Our hope

Our friend.

 

Goodbye, (person’s name).

 

Your people thank you for having lived

Earth is better for your having lived

Men, women and children are alive today

Because you lived.

We thank you for coming to us.

We do not contest your

Right to go away.

Your debts are paid.

This chapter of thy life is shut.

Go now, dear (person’s name), and live once more

In happier time and place.

Thank you, (person’s name).

 

All now here lift up

Your eyes and say to

(Him/her)

Goodbye.

 

(Congregation) Goodbye.

 

Goodbye, our dear

Goodbye.

We’ll miss you, you know.

 

Let the body now

Draw away

To be consumed to ashes

And to dust

In earthly and in cleanly fire

To be no more, no more.

 

And that is done.

 

Come friends,

(He/she) is all right

And (he/she) is gone.

We have our work

To do. And (he/she) has (his/hers).

(He/she) will be welcome there.

 

To Man!

 

L. Ron Hubbard