Now that death

seems not so far away,

I whisper to myself

how much I want to hold

the knowledge in my heart and hear

that life itself can be enough – its beauty and its awesomeness

as well as deepest tragedy.

 

I do not want the need

to seek an offer, or a promise

of something else to come,

to help me face my end.

Such promises don’t strengthen

me, they feel so false,

a prop, I want to do without.

From ‘Whispering to Myself’ by Joan Woodward