All Is Well

Death is nothing at all,

I have only slipped away into the next room.

I am I and you are you.

Whatever we were to each other,

That we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name.

Speak to me in the easy way

Which you always used;

Put no difference into your tone.

Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed

At the little jokes we enjoyed together.

Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.

Let my name be ever the household word

That it always was,

Let is be spoken without effect,

Without the trace of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it is ever meant,

It is the same as it ever was.

There is absolutely unbroken continuity.

Why should I be out of mind

Because I am out of sight?

I am but waiting for you,

For an interval;

Somewhere very near,

Just around the corner,

All is well.

By Canon Henry Scott Holland