Dearly Beloved we gather here today,
Not to celebrate a lovely matrimony,
But to celebrate loss,
A death that touches us every day,
And will do so for the rest of our lives.

Dearly Beloved we mustn't cry,
Not shed a single tear,
We can't nor should we.

Dearly Beloved the death amugst us,
The death I speak of is the death of love,
The death of compassion and kindness,
The death of good all riped from the world far too soon.
Now that it's gone we are left with no emothion,
Left to our sociopathic tendencies,
Left to ourselves,
Left hoping one day these people,
Love, comapsion, kindness and everything good,
Hoping that they will return to make us better again,
So Dearly Beloved I leave you with this,
The tool to bring them all back from the dead,

It's but a smile they said and looked around.
But someday the Dearly Beloved may understand,
It's the small things on a big scale that makes the world good and that's disappearing.

We are gathered here today
In memory of me.
The girl I used to be.
The one with all the love.
The one who the world made soft
The one who fell in love.
The girl who was so innocent.
We are gathered here to bury her in the past.
We are gathered here to put her to rest so I can join the world I long for.
Dearly beloved
I cannot ask you to forget her.
But promise to accept me.
With all my faults.
With all her scars.
Dearly beloved I ask you not to think differently of her.
But I ask you not to compare.
Dearly beloved,
Do not miss her.
She may be dead but to those who turn a blind eye to me, she is very much alive.
She is the fake smile and dead eyes.
The razor that calls at night.
Dearly beloved
Do not fear.
I am not going anywhere.
Dearly beloved,
I **** the person I used to be
In fear of killing the person I could.

That which I pay for, dearly -
The mattress beneath me is imagined to be your chest.
You would cradle me, the way I feel cradled by your gaze.

That which I pay for, dearly -
The lack of holy fiber, which strain to kiss my bones.
It is these very bones - how they ache.
A deep burn, down to the charred marrow.

That which I pay for, dearly -
I pain to hear your voice.
I fear it is warped by the stale heat within my brain.
Its echoes vibrating within the damp cave of my memory -
The pitch now sharp, I suspect.
It rings, a ghostly bellow - to that I cling.

That which I pay for, dearly -
Draw the line in wet concrete.
I fill it with pitch black ink when dry.
It is a line I dare not cross.

This blue pool ripples after the sporadic thumps of my heart.
I bottle it.
Fill the blue glass with beads and pearls - an effort to make this ugly thing sightly.
But it is bottled, I swear.

That which I pay for, dearly.

I love you dearly,
please forgive me,
I do not mean to hurt you,

I love you dearly,
Please forgive me,
but this disease is raging strong.

I love you dearly,
Please forgive me
I fear I may be empty inside,

I love you dearly,
Please forgive me,
You deserve so much better...

I love you dearly,
Please forgive me,
I'm nothing but a monster,

I love you dearly...

Please forgive me...

This is all my fault...

I love you dearly...

please...
please forgive me.

Dearly Beloved
by Michael R. Burch

for Suzan Blacksmith

She was

Dearly Beloved by her children, who gather
to pay their respects; they remember her
as they clung together through frightful weather,
always learning that Love can persevere ...

She was

Dearly Beloved by family and friends
who saw her great worth, even as she grew frail;
for they saw with Love’s eyes how Love’s vision transcends,
how her heart never faltered, through cyclones and hail ...

She is

Dearly Beloved, well-loved, sadly missed ...
and, while we mourn the lost days of a life too-soon ended,
we also rejoice that her suffering is past ...
she now lives in the Light, by kind Angels befriended.

And if

others were greater in fortune and fame,
and if some had iron wills when life’s pathways grew dark ...
still, since Love’s the great goal, we now reaffirm her claim
to the highest of honors: a mother’s Heart.

Keywords/Tags: Suzan Blacksmith, elegy, eulogy, epitaph, memorial, tribute, remembrance, farewell, goodbye, last respects

Dearly beloved, I know you do not exist
Among the walking people and the cement walls,
My love is insane, the lover is fixed
Someone unreal, a rose without thorns.

Dearly beloved, you are a work of Art,
Art itself, the universe since the very start
How fluent your silence is,
The moon up there is your heart.

Dearly beloved, your existence is abstract
Yet I feel your breath on my face,
Your fingers on my skin, your warm smile,
A union purely spiritual and divine.

You are the platinum of the clouds above,
Clarity of the turquoise waters,
The whispers of the empty night,
The orange horizon just before dawn.

Then, what am I doing down here?
Take me into your comforting arms
Then I think, how can I lose you
When I never had you from the start?

Dearly beloved, wake me up from this slumber
Show me the way through this forest fire.
Anything but don't make me ask again,
What is this and where am I?

Yearly, yearly I knew you dearly --
Watched you blossom and sincerely
Hope to be more than merely
A seed without the sun.

Yearly, yearly I held you dearly --
Sown deep in the ground and growing nearly
As stretched as the sky and you now clearly
A seed within the sun.

Yearly, yearly I loved you dearly --
Nurtured as nurtured rarely austerely
Intertwined as death lets us be
Two seeds beneath the sun.

When tomorrow starts without me, I will not be here to see,
That the sun will rise and find your eyes; filled with tears for me,
But please know you're always in my heart, and I will forever love you,
And know, each time you think of me, I will be missing you too.

When tomorrow starts without me, I need you to understand,
That an angel came, he called my name and took me by the hand.
He told me it was time to go up to heaven far above,
And that I have to leave behind all those I dearly love.

When tomorrow starts without me, I know that you will cry,
For all my life I’d always thought that I would never die.
I had so much life ahead of me; I had so much to do,
It seems almost impossible that I was leaving you.

When tomorrow starts without me, I think of the good days, and the bad,
I thought of all our fights, next to all the fun we had.
If I could have stayed, just for a little while,
I would say I'd always be here, and then I'd make you smile.

When tomorrow starts without me, I'll realise that this could never be,
As all that would be left of me, is frozen in memories.
Then I thought of all the beautiful things that I would miss tomorrow,
I thought of you and when I did my heart was filled with sorrow.

When tomorrow starts without me I will walk through heaven’s gate,
I will feel at home even without my soul mate.
I know this is what I wanted, deep down within my bones,
And God looked down and smiled at me from his great golden throne.

When tomorrow starts without me I see everything He promised me,
“Today your life on earth is past, and now you can be free.”
“I promise no tomorrow as today will always last,
And since it's all the same you will not be longing for the past.”

So when tomorrow starts without me don’t think we’re far apart,
For every time you think of me I’m right here in your heart.

dearly beloved,
            yes you with your head hung low to the ground
            lift your eyes up to the evening sky and you'll see
dearly cherished,
           those stars up there, they shine for you and only you
           the darkness cannot compete with your majesty
dearly treasured,
           do not fear your past, nor fear the future
           you are strong, you are brave, you are free
dearly longed for,
          you are me, and I am you. we are the same
          I am afraid of life, of love, of happiness and peace
dearly, oh so dearly hoped for,
        I am writing this to let you know it will get better
        you are not alone, you are not forgotten, please hear me.