What is dying?

I am standing on the sea shore, a ship sails and spreads her white sails

To the morning breeze and starts for the ocean, she is an object of beauty

And I stand watching her til at last she fades on the horizon;

And someone at my side says “she is gone”;

Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is all; she is just as large in the masts, hulls and spars as she was when I saw her, and just as able to bear her load of living freight to its destination.

The diminished size and total loss of sight is in me, not in her;

And just at the moment when someone at my side says “she is gone”,

There are others who are watching her coming, and other voices take up a glad shout, “there she comes”, and that is dying.

Part of a collection of Songs, Shanties and come-all-yes presented by David Wilding of “Ocean Phoenix” to Saltee Dog in memory of their good friend “Pepper” and other deceased crew/friends of his.