All Souls

An appropriate poem for this time of the liturgical year.

Tombstones shine in bright moonbeams;
Soon our bodies will be clay –
Life is hardly what it seems:
Requiescant in pace.

Merry laughter grows more still;
Dust returns to dust one day –
Life is best in God’s sweet will:
Requiescant in pace.

Grass soon covers every trace;
Life so quickly flees away –
Unknown name, and unknown face:
Requiescant in pace.

Man from nothing once was made
By the God we must obey –
Keep our souls from Satan’s shade:
Requiescant in pace.

Tombstones shine in a bright moon’s light;
Now we cross ourselves and pray –
Save us by Thy mercy’s might!
Requiescant in pace.

~

November 5, 2007