Author Joan Warren: Poetry – GOD’S ACRES

Memories Flow
I sat at his bedside, waiting with him for the moment when he left his body. We call it dying – DEATH. During the quiet hours, as I let him sleep peacefully, I sat with my notebook and pencil. I wrote, setting my emotions and revelations to paper, acknowledging and striving to gain an understanding of how to cope with so much loss.

This man was with me for twenty-five years, constantly showing generosity to me and others. We experienced a deep love for each other that refused to make judgments.

Until this experience entered into my life, I thought I had experienced sorrow and grief several times. However, those experiences did not prepare me for the depth and intensity of my husband’s death. The waiting, sitting with him all day for ten days, took its toll, and I needed to recover.

In 2009, the hospital staff in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, were kind, understanding and respectful. I thank God for his ever-presence, and when I am able, I draw on God’s limitless love and caring.

As I waited, Memories Flowed and flooded my consciousness.
1995 World War II memory

GOD’S ACRES 

I stand on a hill just inside the entrance
and stare as far as the eye can see.
I look at the row on row of crosses,
emotions high, hurting with sadness.

I stand beside my husband hand-in-hand.
I whisper, “How can we find it, there
are too many crosses?”
I feel the pain, tears flow down my cheeks
unchecked.

No stranger to the pain of loss visits here.
Friend, partner, child, brother,
all loved ones are gone,
and youth lost.
I wait.

“I must find it,” he whispers back.
“He saved my life, so I could return home.
I promised him that I’d never forget.
I’ve lived my life in freedom with love.
I must honor him.”

If one has not felt it by their hand,
they cannot truly understand the loss.
I remember that day as if it is now
as I stand on the hill
and stare down at a cross in Victoria, B.C.
called God’s Acre.

I too, must remember, not with a sense of loss, but with a sense of gratitude for their gifts of life.