Death Bed Words

How Do you Envision the End of your Life?  

Mark Strand's poetry haunts the reader with open ended questions---"not every man knows what he shall say at the end."  Will there even be time for words?  Oscar Wilde is said to have looked at the wallpaper in his bedroom and said, "One of of us just has to go!"   Perhaps if we have presence of mind, we may utter something memorable.  But I would rather think that it will be more like the feeling--of a rising sun, not its setting.  Or others may just feel like it is a "Dead End."

I just wonder to myself if it really matters.  On the one hand, who will be writing our biography at the death bed?  On the other hand, what good does that do us anyway--to leave on the wings of words?
Hmmm...There is this alternative understanding and that is the words that say every day.  What do we utter when the sun greets us? What do we say when it sets?  And, who do we say it to so that it matters?  A biographer?

Here's my take....   Live fully for the day and for the God who calls you on and you don't have to worry what you will say.  Others will take care of that for you. 

 The End

By Mark Strand

Not every man knows what he shall sing at the end,

Watching the pier as the ship sails away, or what it will seem like

When he’s held by the sea’s roar, motionless, there at the end,

Or what he shall hope for once it is clear that he’ll never go back.

When the time has passed to prune the rose or caress the cat,

When the sunset torching the lawn and the full moon icing it down

No longer appear, not every man knows what he’ll discover instead.

When the weight of the past leans against nothing, and the sky

Is no more than remembered light, and the stories of cirrus

And cumulus come to a close, and all the birds are suspended in flight,

Not every man knows what is waiting for him, or what he shall sing

When the ship he is on slips into darkness, there at the end.