For Once, Then Always Poem by Ronny Self

When I am dead and gone—
Far beyond the hills we walked as youth,
And these old bones have had their taste of truth
And young of spirit, of song;
Will I come to a new dawn?

Awake to find the sky anew?
And I will stretch and rise from sleep
Raising hands that once touched the deep.
But will I find myself amongst the blue?
No, I doubt that through and through—

Unless I be more star than man
My self will die with my last breath;
And the world will go quiet in death.
Though my name may still speak across the span
Of he that once was a man.