Don't stand at my grave and weep

Don't stand at my grave and weep.
I'm not there, I don't sleep.
I'm thousand winds that blow,
I'm the diamond glints on the snow.
I'm the sunlight on ripened grain,
I'm the gentle autumn's rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush,
I'm the swift uplifting rush
of quet birds in circled flight.
I'm the stars that shine at night.
Don't stand at my grave and cry,
I'm not there, I didn't die ...

(Mary Frye, 1932)   *****  

Mary Frye wrote this poem in 1932. She had never written poetry before but was moved by the plight of a young German Jewish woman, Margaret Schwarzkopf who was living with her at the time in Baltimore, U.S. She wrote the poem on a brown paper bag. Margaret had been concerned about her mother, who was ill in Germany, but she was warned not to return home because of the growing anti-Semitic unrest. When her mom died she told Mary that she never had the chance to stand by her mother’s grave and shed a tear. This is what encouraged Mary to write the poem.

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