“What is dying?”

What is dying?

A ship sails and I stand watching 

till she fades on the horizon, 

and someone at my side

says, “She is gone”.

Gone where? Gone from my sight,

that is all; she is just as 

large as when I saw her . . .

the diminished size and total 

loss of sight is in me, not in her, 

and just at the moment

when someone at my side

says “she is gone”, there are others 

who are watching her coming, 

and other voices take up the glad shout,

 “there she comes!” . . . and that is dying.

Charles Henry Brent (1862-1929)

Canadian/American Episcopalian bishop

Posted from Brockwood Hall, Cumbria, England