Haiku for Headstones

My friend invited us to share haiku for our headstones on her blog. I came up with a few and enjoyed them enough that I decided I wanted to record them here too. :)

Note - I take the planning of a headstone pretty seriously - currently I want my full name listed including maiden name, birth place and death place in addition to full birth and death dates and the names of my children on the back with their birth dates. These things need to be recorded everywhere IMHO and I have life insurance that can help pay for how expensive that will be to put on stone.

But the haiku - what fun it is to write the simple poems. Here are some:

I am a mother
I changed the world for better
Raising my children

Or

You can catch a glimpse
My eternal legacy
Those who stop to visit here

Or

For my dear children
I will always cherish you
In my heart forever

Or

I learned early on
That what matters most in life
Are people we love

Kind of fun! What haiku would you write for your headstone?

Memorial Day

Memorial Day was yesterday. We spent most of it at cemeteries in Idaho visiting family graves. It was a nice way to spend memorial day, the number of people leaving flowers for family members at the cemetery was wonderful to see. Some were also heartbreaking - those leaving flowers for children and babies. People were cleaning up their family graves, decorating them, talking and praying with them, leaving memorials. I really recommend Find A Grave by the way. Here is David L. Duff's memorial.

Today was my due date. I had two miscarriages last fall, one due on Easter and the other due today. The losses of those pregnancies was really hard. It has changed me, as adversity does. I hope that I have become a better person and learned more compassion for others and patience from my own losses. I hope that I am more understanding and loving to others, realizing that I personally do not know what kind of trials they are dealing with. I did write a poem last fall that I want to share here now. Normally I don't talk about these things and yet I think that it is healing to talk about them and that they should be talked about a little more, so others also know they aren't alone in the loss. I am so grateful to friends who were kind and supportive to me then. Here is the poem:


Everybody says it'll be okay
and I just smile and nod
I'm screaming on the inside though
They say I'll get you back
and next time things will work
out It just Wasn't the right
time. I stare and wonder
how could they tell me
that? I've lost a baby
not a job or phone.
You can't replace
a person's soul.

I have to believe you are in heaven
now I have to think you only
needed a short time to live
And though I never held you
in my arms alive you
lived inside me and you're mine
I know some people think I'm
crazy now because to me you
were a child. But you
were my baby and my hopes
and dreams as soon as I
saw the two pink lines.

I don't know why you had
to leave so soon. I know I
would have been a loving mom
Anything that made you
different would not have changed
a thing. Please - I can't believe
you're gone.
(10-26-06)