Bookends

For old friends

‎ sitting on the park bench

in my heart

‎

There is no end without a beginning,

nor beginnings that start before an end

as life and death is a circle spinning.

‎

Find a saint who's a stranger to sinning;

a present whose past did not first amend.

There is no end without a beginning.

‎

The hungry caterpillar's soft grinning

knows a butterfly is around the bend

as death and life is a chrysalis limning.

‎

Times of innocence now gray and thinning.

(all things go, though we may try to pretend)

There is no value without an ending.

‎

Cherish youth & laughter – wide eyes brimming

with tears over the loss of a dear friend –

as here and now is a fixed clock ticking.

‎

Do not fear the earth's loving light dimming

for from this plane we are born to transcend;

There is no end without a beginning

as life and death is a circle spinning.