No Need for Tears
by
Joan Constance Croft
Mourn not the Shell when Life's fretting is o'er,
But pray the soul has come to rest
Upon some distant happier shore,
Where love and joy go side by side
And only hurtful things have died.
And do not shed too many tears,
I've wept them all before,
Enough to fill an ocean and standing on the shore,
The waves have washed around my feet
'til my heart could weep no more.
Just throw away my ashes on the sea
That they may ride the waves, and with incoming tides
Rush gaily in the caves, or dash up freely on the rocks
To come teasing back again,
Released at last from inhibition, wasteful doubt and pain.
Mourn not the Shell, Life's fretting is o'er.
Joan Constance Croft has written poetry for some considerable
years and has published poems on a number of previous occasions
in Education Update. She is now 82 years of age and lives with
her husband Ronald, aged 85, a retired Senior Textile Executive
and Church Organist and Choirmaster in Bolton, Lancashire,
England.
