Poem by Don Marquis

LINES FOR A GRAVESTONE

Here the many lives I led,

All my selves, are lying dead:

All they journeyed far to find

Strawed by the dispersing wind:

You that were my lovers true,

That is neither sad nor new!

Naught that I have been or planned

Sails the seas nor walks the land:

That is not a cause for woe

Where the careless planets go!

Naught that I have dreamed or done

Casts a shadow on the sun:

Not for that shall any Spring

Fail of song or swallow's wing!

Neither change nor sorrow stays

The bright processional of days --

When the hearts that grieved die, too,

Where is then the grief they knew?

Speed, I bid you, speed the earth

Onward with a shout of mirth,

Fill your eager eyes with light,

Put my face and memory

Out of mind and out of sight.

Nothing I have caused or done,

But this gravestone, meets the sun:

Friends, a great simplicity

Comes at last to you and me!

-- The Almost Perfect State, p212