Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep

• by Surj Sehambi
• 1 month ago

I lost my mum to Covid-19 on 11 April 2020. Two weeks later, I lost my father-in-law to septicemia. On 28 Dec 2020, my father died in my arms, following a 3 week stay in hospital from what my siblings and I thought was a minor heart attack. Thinking nothing could be worse, on 5 April 2021, my beautiful 15-year-old daughter, Millie, took her own life. Poems, like art and music, are very personal. They talk to us and bring us comfort when we need them. Often, it's bittersweet. I'm still trying to work through the rubble of my life, but this poem, the words, make things a little less difficult.

• by Evans Muema
• 5 months ago

Still trying to come to terms with my father's passing on last month. This poem has been giving me great consolation. I just keep on reading it and feel relieved.

• by Olayioye B. Paul
• 10 months ago

I was 16 when my grandma died. It was like a dry up of a source, even my father felt the same way. So when I read this poem, it brought this occurrence to my memory again. Rest in peace, grandma.

• by Vicki Knauss
• 1 year ago

We painted all our nails different colors, I watched your curly head dance around in tiny pink bathing suits, and changed the bed we slept in together. I have named a star after you, and written songs about your long eye lashes and prayed to every god I have heard of and what I know from every chemical of my being is that as long as I have a body, mine will miss yours.

• by Matan Yonatan
• 1 year ago

My father passed away when I was 11 years old. This poem just reminded me of all the times I cried as a kid after my father's passing. But now I stand with my chin held high and remember all the fun times I had with him.

• by Richard
• 1 year ago

I was just seven years old when my Mom died ... and it felt like my whole life was on the dark side of the world. I wanna be with her. She was my everything. The 4th night of her funeral I fell asleep next to her coffin, and I had a dream. She held out a message that said, "Son, I'm so sorry for leaving. I'm so sorry for not saying goodbye. I'm so sorry for breaking my promises. I'm so sorry I will not be able to watch you grow up. I want you to finish your studies. I love you, my little boy." Then after she said all those words, a sudden flash of light appeared, and I woke up from dreaming.

• by JUNE THOMPSON
• 1 year ago

I lost my mum suddenly 4 years ago. She was my best friend, and I never got to say goodbye to her. I was distraught and in shock, but when I came across this poem, which was read at my mum's funeral, it gave me comfort knowing that she was still around me and always would be. I think about her every day, and when her loss overwhelms me, I read this beautiful poem, look out the window and see her everywhere, and this gives me great comfort.

• by Gabriel A. Munyovi, Migori
• 2 years ago

I was born once, and I'll die once. What makes the difference between my birthday and my death day are the little things that I did, how I lived my life, how I socialized and lived in the society. People won't cry because I'll be gone forever, but they will look behind and see the very things you used to do, how you helped the society, how many cases you solved and brought peace. They will miss your peace, they will miss your intelligence, your hardworking nature. Just as they celebrated when you were born, not because you are born! But because they believe something new, something unique, something different has been brought to them. It is how someone lives in the society, that's what people will miss.

• by Michelle Farries
• 2 years ago

I lost my Mum 11 weeks ago. She was only 71. It was always just her and me, and I honestly feel as if half of me is missing. I asked a dear friend to read this poem as my Mum was being buried; it means so much to me. My Mum was a real lover of nature and taught me to respect nature and everything around me. I now have my Mum's garden bench in my garden and sit listening in the early morning and evening to the nature all around me and truly believe my Mum is with me in these wonderful things. Thank you for reading my story.

• by Amie Brown
• 2 years ago

When my father died suddenly, I commented on Facebook that it felt like some of the light had gone out of the light. The funeral director pulled me aside at the visitation and told me that he was found with a flashlight beside his hand. It was still on. So, even though my Dad was gone, he left a light on for me! I still have that flashlight.

• by Aliasghar Esbati
• 2 years ago

Today when I was in an Iranian cemetery for a friend's funeral. Quite accidentally, I came across the poem "Do not stand at my grave and weep ..." engraved in English on a grave stone of a woman. She was maybe a mother or a daughter and maybe a wife. I was impressed and said a prayer and took a picture of her grave stone which was decorated with beautiful flowers. I searched the poem on the internet tonight thinking deeply and wrote and submitted these wordings to remember to all beloved ones who are not between us.
Aliasghar Esbati
Tehran, Iran

• by Joseph Battaglia
• 2 years ago

My cousin passed away this past summer. I hadn't seen him in years. I saw this poem just after I got the news, and I couldn't help but cry. Right after I got the news, I was sitting outside reading the poem as a gentle breeze was passing and some birds flew out of a tree nearby. This is the first winter without him, and all the shining snow on the ground just reminds me of him even more.

• by Rhonda Howe
• 2 years ago

The day before my dad's funeral, I was standing outside and this hawk was glowing in the sky just gliding up and down on the wind. Then I saw 4 white birds flying in a circle and I thought to myself they look like ghost birds because they were so faint. The next day at my dad's funeral in the card they hand out was this poem and the words "I am the uplifting wind and the circle of birds in flight" were there. I was in tears...no way this was coincidence....my sister picked out the poem. I hadn't heard it before that day.

• by Patricia Perkowski
• 2 years ago

At the funeral of my mother, I was overcome with grief. While standing at the gravesite, a friend quietly handed me a crumpled piece of paper. She said, "I didn't have time to buy you a card, but maybe these words will help you. I don't know who wrote it, but it helped me!" Well, that was 30 years ago and I still remember. Today, I am passing it on to a dear friend who had just lost his sister.

• by Daniel
• 2 years ago

I lost my mom to the cold hands of death in 1999, just two years after my grandma passed on. I still grieve each time I have so much to discuss with her, like I'd been doing before her tragic demise. I miss her each and every day, yet I don't have a picture of her I could hold on to. Sometimes I'd whisper to the walls in my room, wishing and hoping she were there listening. But now I know she is not dead, she is in everything around me. Thank you so much for this poem...it just made my day!!!

• by Madie
• 2 years ago

I read this poem today. It reminds me of my mom. She died 5 years ago, yet reading this made me feel like she was in the hospital, telling her sister what she wanted at the funeral. It reminded me of the poem on the back of her funeral card.

• by Loki Heckman
• 3 years ago

I lost a friend a while ago and he was like family, but this makes me happy that he is with nature and happy but also makes me sad because I miss him. He was a great person who didn't need to die by the hands of a idiot driver in a truck.

• by Patricia Hart
• 3 years ago

My daughter, aged 34, died on December 3, 2018, from a rare viral infection that attacked her heart. As a family, we would have preferred cremation, but her husband insisted on burial. This poem was apt because of its strong message that we shouldn't stand at a grave and weep as her spirit is in harmony with nature. This message gave me comfort on an otherwise tragic day as it conveyed my beliefs in a very beautiful and poignant way.

• by Charlene
• 3 years ago

My Mama and I walked her final journey together. It was just the two of us sharing her hospice bed. We whispered stories and secrets never before told. After Mama was silent, only I continued whispering. After 3 days she opened her eyes wide. She intently was seeing what I could not.
I asked, "What do you see, Mama?"
"I see me, and I am young with my long chestnut hair."
"Are you alone, Mama?" I asked.
"No, your Nana and your Uncle Bill are waiting for me."
I asked, "Are you afraid, Mama."
A sparkle lit her blank, dark eyes as she said so emphatically, "CERTAINLY NOT."
Then she was gone. Gone to and with our loved one. Although no longer in my present world, she is so very present still journeying by my side each day.

• by Keira O'Kane
• 4 years ago

My dad passed away 6 months ago, just shortly after I turned 17. I found this poem a few weeks after, and whenever I feel grief or anger or just plain sadness, I like to pull up this poem to read. I never usually have such a connection with poetry. I enjoy reading and analyzing, but I have never felt a true understanding or appreciation of the poem. My gran also passed away just 2 weeks ago, and again I've found myself pulling up this poem. It has greatly helped me deal with all these tough feelings and trying times I've gone through lately. For me, it makes dealing with a lost loved one easier and more comforting.

• by Kerriann Maus
• 4 years ago

My beloved husband lost his battle to cancer almost two years ago. My husband became suddenly sick and died 6 months later. I received this poem from a dear work friend, and it has taken me almost two years to "accept these comforting words." Grief is so crippling. The grief is lessened with beautiful words as these in this poem. Our loved one is always there, and this poem tells us that.

• by Beth Mayhew
• 4 years ago

This was left in my mom's belongings and found when she passed away in 1986. I love this poem!

• by Karen Palmer
• 4 years ago

I had this read at the gravesite of my daughter, 26, and granddaughter, 5 months. They were victims of a drunk driver and the people were devastated. I wanted this to be the only thing done at the grave-site. It gave me great comfort. It still gives me comfort 21 years later.

• by Allan Hirsch
• 4 years ago

I first discovered this poem when I was searching amongst anonymous poems on the internet. I wanted to include it in a song I wrote, which was a kind of prayer. It was meant to be an answer to the struggle a painter was having understanding or coming to find peace with death. I later discovered this is an extremely popular poem written by Mary Elizabeth Frye. It is a wonder that so much could be said, so much love and compassion could be expressed in just a few words.

• by Muhamad Shaaban
• 4 years ago

When Mr. Lee Kuan Yew- the first prime minister of Singapore (my home country)- passed away, the principal of my school read this poem during the morning assembly as a farewell to him. It had touched me because I had learned in history classes how he had shaped said country into what it is today.

• by Rneloma
• 4 years ago

I have always loved this poem. When I die, I want my ashes to be sprinkled over the ocean and the rainforest in my country. Hence, I can truly relate to this poem.

• by Brian Tulloch
• 4 years ago

I found this lovely poem on a gravestone while jogging through a Seattle cemetery near my son's house. It was in a cluster of graves of younger folk from the mid-80's, which had to be part of the City's AIDS fallen. Hindu culture believes in reincarnation to life's many forms, and this offering expresses that belief in a more universally relevant form. I cannot read it with dry eyes.

• by John Johnson
• 4 years ago

I read the poem at my brother's 20th anniversary in 2014.....where his ashes were scattered off the coast of Barna, Galway, Ireland.

• by William Sadoski Jr.
• 4 years ago

On January 31, 1995, this poem appeared in the Dear Abby column of the Orlando (Florida) Sentinel. Always liking poetry. I read this to my Father at the breakfast table shortly after 7:00 a.m. My father passed away around 8:00 that Tuesday morning. This poem has comforted me so many times over the years.

• by Dottie Rigsby
• 5 years ago

This poem is a classic because it provides a link to a loved one who has died. For me, the sudden loss of my mom was unbearable. It's difficult to be forced to give up someone you are very close to. And also who has been taken away suddenly. So I kept searching for something that would help me to stay connected to my Mom. This poem was it.

• by Louise Goldberg Friend
• 5 years ago

What makes the poem a "classic" is that it has a life of its own that is more powerful than time or space or distance. It lives on inside the heart/soul and mediated between life and death in the most gentle way.

• by Dottie Rigsby
• 5 years ago

My mom died in May 1965, when I was 18 years old. Her death devastated me. When I first heard this poem, it touched me, and I almost felt it had been written for me. It helps me because I still mourn losing my Mom, 52 years later.

• by Susan Ruck
• 5 years ago

I first read this poem when I was reading Gill Ireland's book. She lost her son, and this was read at his funeral. I have never forgotten it. I found out today that my neighbor’s little dog of 14 years passed away yesterday. She is devastated. I, too, have lost pets, and every time you lose one, you lose part of your own soul. I thought of this poem, so I found a card that I still had with puppies on it, printed out the poem, and placed it in the card. A poem can say what you would like to say, when you don't know quite how.

• by Lake
• 5 years ago

I lost my best friend in an accident when I was 12. I've wanted to get over it now that it's been 3 years, but no one even knows what he was to me. Now I have decided this grieving stuff wouldn't be what he'd want. This poem helped!

• by Zahra Raza
• 5 years ago

I am almost twelve and my mom told me a few months ago because she probably thought that I was grown up enough to know this...she told me there could have been another sister of hers, but she didn't survive; she died in my grandmom.

• by LeChel
• 5 years ago

Beautiful. My biggest loss came 13 years ago. Seems like yesterday. Everything turned a hazy shade of gray and I just couldn't see the sun shine. Reading over the comments of so many lost loved ones, even your own children, makes me cry because you've been there. It will lighten up in time. This poem helps as you will begin to stop and feel the rain,and watch the birds, and the gentle breeze feels like your loved one walking beside you. EXCELLENT JOB. I wish I could have told Mary Elizabeth Frye that on July 9,2004 in the small town of Silo,Oklahoma, a 9 year old girl tapped her mom on the knee while sitting in the pew of that tiny church. She held her head a little sideways and pointed to her blond hair, blowing as if in a gentle breeze and whispered, "Mom! There's no wind in here!" Then ran her fingers under the line, "I am a thousand winds that blow".

• by Carol Snow
• 5 years ago

It's what we want to believe. We don't cry because our loved one is dead, we cry because we won't ever see or talk to them again and we will miss them. We are crying for ourselves. Someone sent me this poem in a sympathy card when my daughter died 46 years ago. I can still recite it by heart and that is why it is a classic, it speaks to our hearts and tells us what we want to hear. Our loved one is not really dead.

• by Sina Ngoepe
• 5 years ago

I recently lost a friend. I can't believe he is gone. I thought it was just a prank. I still can't get over the loss. He died at age 26. He was a beautiful soul. Reading this poem made me feel better knowing that he is out there watching over us. I will always love him.. He will forever be in my heart. May your soul rest in peace Rick.

• by David Jones
• 6 years ago

My close friend Peter, who lived in Germany, died suddenly from a heart attack. His family were naturally grieving heavily. I was unable to attend his funeral, so instead sent a blank card into which I had copied this poem, which I love dearly. My friend's daughter, Christine, translated the poem into German at the funeral and she said that it brought great comfort to those assembled and to Peter's widow, Ute. Thank you for this.

• by Rupert, Republic Of South Africa, Johannesburg
• 6 years ago

I lost my Aunt exactly 1 year ago, it was so painful , she was close to my heart. I recited the poem during her funeral with utmost reverence. This poem is full of character and emotions. Eternal rest grant unto her O'Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her. Amen

• by Emily Lovingood, NC
• 6 years ago

On 12/09/15, I was sitting in Applebee's waiting for my food . A friend walked up to my table and said your 2 friends Stone and Zeb were in a car accident and one is dead but they don't know who..... 5 minutes later the same person came back and said Stone died and Zeb is badly hurt... Here I am a 16 year old girl crying her eyes out cause I just lost a friend in a car crash; almost two.. the day before Stone's funeral this poem showed on my news feed on Facebook and it honestly made me feel so much better, knowing he is in a better place with the lord and that he wouldn't want us to cry. I miss you Stone. Forever in my heart.

• by Jennifer Oliver, South Africa
• 6 years ago

My fourteen year old daughter was killed in an accident less than two weeks ago. Last night I was just browsing on my laptop to pass the time and found this poem that I bookmarked sometime in the past. It made me cry but also comforted me because that is exactly what Caitlyn would tell me.

• by Chloe Jones, UK
• 6 years ago

I was nine when my mum died; she had been fighting cancer for years and none of us kids even knew. She was one of the kindest and most compassionate people I have, and probably will ever meet. My auntie read her own poem about my mum and then she read this one. I didn't really appreciate the poem at the time, but quite recently my auntie gave me my memory box ( a box of the four she made for each of us, myself and my siblings, that contained mementos that would remind us of our mum). Inside it, along side other things, was a book. It was a copy of a version of this poem illustrated by Paul Saunders, and the first time I read it it brought me to tears. Thank you for such a beautiful poem that I will now cherish always.

• by Anonymous, CA
• 7 years ago

I had heard that a close friend of mine died in the newspaper. She was so nice, but her condition got to the better of her. I found this poem soon after, and literally the second I read it I felt so, so, SO much better. It heals the heart, and now that heavy weight that's been on my heart since her and my grandparent's passing has lost some pounds. Such a beautiful poem Bless you, Mary!

• by Georgina, Hertfordshire
• 7 years ago

My baby boy was stillborn in October last year. I miss him every day. This poem reminds me that he will always be with me.

• by Jessica, United States
• 7 years ago

I am young but have experienced a lot of death, 24 since I was 10. Cancer, car accidents (their fault and others), suicide, and murder. This poem helped me so much. Thank you to the person who wrote it. Thank you so much for helping myself and so many others heal.

• by Georgina Baker, Manchester England.
• 7 years ago

This was read out at my dad's funeral, he was 49 and died suddenly of a heart attack.

• by Sandra New Hampshire
• 7 years ago

I read this at my 16 yr old .... Andrea Lee funeral Mass. In 1995

• by Dan Harazin, Bridgman Michigan
• 7 years ago

Last December, I received a call from one of my football teammates that a coach of ours was in the hospital. I didn't know the severity or extent of what was going on. But when I got there, my friend looked me in the eye and said "He's gone". I was extremely close with this particular coach, we were workout partners and genuine friends. I was in complete shock. When is sat down in the waiting room chair, I remembered this poem, or something like it. So I immediately looked it up and began reading it. I sat in that chair for at least an hour waiting for something to happen, and I read this poem at least 20 times. It's a beautiful work. Rest in peace Coach.

• by Tina Kadir, London
• 7 years ago

I read this poem at my brothers funeral. I still feel him sometimes so this poem was a good example of eternal love.

• by Kailee Kunz
• 8 years ago

I have this beautiful poem at home. The poem was typed behind a picture of a young lady who died at age 18 because of cancer. The poem is so comforting and thoughtful.

• by Donna Thornburg, California
• 9 years ago

I have this poem on an old piece of paper that was my great grandmothers. I am almost 70 years old. So this poem has been around a very long time and I am now going to use it for my mother-in-laws funeral service. She passed away at the age of almost 91 years old. It is a long loved favorite

• by Sharon Cornell Elkton
• 11 years ago

this is the best I have read I had it posted at work on the board and when my dad passed away the girls took it down before I came back to work in fear that I would be hurt and It was the first thing I looked for when I came back I loved my dad very much he passed away in 2000 Dad I know you hear me I love you still