Death Cannot Take Poem by Forrest Hainline

Death parts us, and as we deal with loss
We try to scrape together the bits and pieces
That bound us together in life’s jetsam and floss
Things that touched us, the additions, the increases
The laughter, the wisdom, the passion, the love
That made even the darkest days brighter
That clarified and increased the quality of
Life and life’s mysteries and we try to anchor
With firm memory what death tries to end
To make sense of the senseless, to order this chaos,
To preserve what we gained, to keep, to append
To push back against the overwhelming sense of loss
Death only hurts where love lives
Death cannot take what love’s memory gives

© Forrest Hainline