A leader is present for many of life’s challenges and celebrations. Death inevitably and invariably touches everyone and we must be there for our people. This poem features death as a silent partner in our grief, as we struggle to gain our composure an ability to be strong and go forward.

Death Paid a Visit to Our Home

Death paid a visit to our home.
He was a gentleman and came alone.
He shared in every somber thought.
He saw firsthand the pain he brought;
Sat silently among recollections,
And listened to the words of reflection.

Death as a nomad, a traveler combs
The countryside and the streets of the city.
Death, an unwelcomed visitor to homes
That had hoped he’d pass over; For pity
Precedes the wailing and gnashing of teeth.
The sense of loss that torments beneath
The epidermal layers of grief,
Begs the physician for cure or relief.

He led us through songs to put us at ease,
To sway minds off the pain and disease.
He led us through pleasantries revealing,
The depth of wonder and girth of feelings.
Death was conductor to grief stricken kin.
He led us in fellowship as we sat in
Communion with the nearly departed;
The forlorn, lonely and brokenhearted.

Death when he visited cherished the rights
Of mourners as we suffered the nights
And days until the anguish of the soul
Transported our loved one to Sheol.
Death as a quiet manifestation,
Did not disclose their destination.
We discovered that Death first collects
And returns later to pay his respects.

Death paid a visit to our home.
He was a gentleman and came alone.
He shared in every somber thought
He saw firsthand the pain he brought;
Sat silently among recollections,
And listened to the words of reflection.

Copyright © 2001 Orlando Ceaser
Reprinted from Teach the Children to Dance
By Orlando Ceaser