Here was the poem I recited - it is good for an alcoholic (who was so sad and so tormented!) and also for someone who was not religious at all:
SPELL OF SLEEP
Let him be safe in sleep
As leaves folded together
As young birds under wings
As the unopened flower.
Let him be hidden in sleep
As islands under rain,
As mountains within their clouds,
As hills in the mantle of dusk.
Let him be free in sleep
As the flowing tides of the sea,
As the travelling wind on the moor,
As the journeying stars in space.
Let him be upheld in sleep
As a cloud at rest on the air,
As a sea-wrack under the waves
When the flowing tide covers all
And the shells’ delicate lives
Open on the sea-floor.
Let him be healed in sleep
In the quiet waters of the night
In the mirroring pool of dreams
Where memory returns in peace,
Where the troubled spirit grows wise
And the heart is comforted.
---Kathleen
Raine (20th century British poet)
My husband is healed and at peace in sleep.
I'm glad that there is some closure through the poem and the place for his remains. I have saved the poem. Thank you.
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