Requiescat 9 - Committal Poem by Michael Maxwell Steer

Here in this hallowed earth your body we rest,
Here where the service of God has been honoured for centuries:
Here where the spirits of all ancient souls are present
to welcome you back to the land of the living and free:
Here where the arc of all your life's hope was highest.

Here your earthly family gathered to celebrate
your passage as a girl, then wife, then mother;
and now as a homecoming spirit drawn back to glory.

May the loving Christ enfold you
into this earth, in eternal life.
May your parents bless you now
at last in spirit reunited.
May your ghostly father-in-God,
his eyes on the hills, promise you peace.

Go forth on the voyage your life prepared you for,
Exploring the incommunicable bliss
which is the reward of all your suffering.
Become yourself the polar star, whose light
you always sought, and so guide wayfarers.

Bless us all, your children, now and always.


The ninth of a sequence written after the death of my mother: : this to be read over the interment of her ashes in Limpsfield churchyard, Surrey: : 01 November 2007