Please Remember Him

By Christian Martin

Copyright © 1999, 2007 by Christian Martin. All rights reserved.

  1. O God, our Father,
  2. May we talk together?
  3. I wish to speak for a friend,
  4. Who has begun his journey to the End.
  5.  
  6. Could Your light guide his steps
  7. To You, in death’s darkness?
  8. Could You hold his hand,
  9. On this journey to the End?
  10.  
  11. Hold him to Your heart,
  12. Hear the cries on his part,
  13. Listen to the wails of his loss,
  14. On the cold river his to cross.
  15.  
  16. Lend a compassionate ear
  17. For his voice carries fear,
  18. Let him not disappear,
  19. With the shore so near.
  20.  
  21. Your hands do extend,
  22. His wounds to amend,
  23. His pains to relieve,
  24. In You he believes.
  25.  
  26. Your Love he sobs for
  27. For he too is Your son,
  28. Close not Your door,
  29. To a caring person.
  30.  
  31. From the grips of Death
  32. Offer him shelter,
  33. Lest his steps falter,
  34. And lead in its net.
  35.  
  36. There in our needs,
  37. For others always caring,
  38. Our weakness forgiving,
  39. These were his deeds.
  40.  
  41. Open Your Residence,
  42. To let him rest forever,
  43. To be forgotten never,
  44. To Your music let him dance.
  45.  
  46. Let him sit to Your table,
  47. Your family, a long-lost member
  48. Returning barely able,
  49. Seeking Your hearth’s ember.
  50.  
  51. As long as he is in Your memory
  52. He will live for eternity,
  53. As long as he is in Your care,
  54. Forget we will not dare.
  55.  
  56. Please remember him,
  57. Now and on Judgment Day,
  58. As we remember him,
  59. On this Day.

This poem is dedicated to Ted Elliott, who died on the 16th day of November, of complications due to AIDS. My friend, I will never forget you.