We Weep For Ourselves Poem by Francis Duggan

Old memories we cling to from us fading fast
We weep for ourselves when we weep for the past
The things that once were that will never more be
The people we loved we will never more see

Only memories of what was are ours to retain
We weep for what was that cannot be again
We weep for ourselves when we weep for the dead
I only quote here what a wise one once said

The dead do not know when for them we shed tears
In their lives they too had their good and bad years
For many of them death from life was a welcome release
They have earned their rest leave them to rest in peace

The old bloke in the pub he has tears in his eyes
For where he will never more see the sun rise
For old friends he loved in distant graveyards they do lay
He weeps for himself and his past far away

Our sorrows in life to us come at a cost
We weep for ourselves when we weep for what to us is lost
Our happiest times as sad memories in us remain
The workings of life beyond me to explain.