A Eulogy for Humanity

For every writer who dreams for a better world, and every reader who imagines it.

A Eulogy for Humanity

By

Carlos Lorenzo Estrada

(An Epilogue)

I remember in their lips I saw; the words left unspoken in final moments 

In the glint of their last light they spoke these unsaid words to me

Let us open our eyes; not just to see, but feel.

And when we breathe we should do so not just to live but to dream

Let us grow old with wisdom, yet retain youth with our curiosity 

To understand our fallibilities, but strive to be boundless in optimism

Let our compassion to be better; outweigh our selfishness to be petty

For it is easier to hate than make the sacrifices that are required of love

Let us refrain from ignorance for it is a barrier toward our higher aspirations 

And to deny these things in which we believe; is to never live the life we yearn

Let us never lose insight on the virtues that define human empathy

For what fills the void within that loss will be the worst of our cynical vices.

For not all tears are sorrow, nor smiles for joy

The end of a journey is both celebration and bittersweet

Never forget the brevity of life and the finite of each sunrise seen

When you are alive it is hope; when you are dead it is legacy

Author's Note

Thank you kindly for taking the time to read this short piece of writing. I feel it is filled with wisdom and insight many of us have heard before in some form or another. We do not know the hour of our passing, but intuitively acknowledge its constant presence within our living moments. What I take comfort in now as a writer is the fact that we all see the same sunrise
and weave from dream this thing called art.

Reviews

[Michael McLaughlin]

From the heart. Learning to let go. It is the hardest thing to do. You expressed those feelings beautifully.

[Carlos Lorenzo Estrada]

Thank you Michael for your comment on this piece. In the 57 years of life I have endured I can say that it's been quite an unusual journey. Much of my wisdom has been borrowed from so many others who I deem much more wiser than myself. As I near my twilight nothing drives my will more than counting each breath I take in the now. I feel their crushing limits more than ever. I love writing. Expression in the form of words is akin to dreams on the cusp of sleep. We writers truly are dreamers. It is a gift we are blessed to have and share. For almost 15 years I hadn't written anything following the death of my father. But it was this community that gave me back the gift of dream again. I will always be grateful for that. Especially to be surrounded by incredibly creative and talented writers like you and others here. Thank you again for sharing your thoughts with me on this poem.

[Ken Simm.]

I would like to be associated with the comments of the above speaker. wisdom no more no less but with a crystal beauty that outsings the rest.

[Carlos Lorenzo Estrada]

Thank you so very much for your kind comment Ken. I truly appreciate it. There are so many creative artistic writers in this community, including your work, that I have a strong appreciation, admiration, and respect for. This world wide community has really liberated me as a writer. The words above really speak aspirational to the idea of legacy. We write with knowledge that the words carry a piece of us in them. I may never move mountains, or swim the deeper seas. And I am ok with that. If I have managed to make one person smile, laugh, or think from one of these pieces I have written...well to me that is enough. Thank you so much again for your kind comment.

[Sami Khalil]

One of your best pieces of poetry. Full to the brim with wisdom and life experiences. You jot down from within a recipe for good living, interaction and self actualization. Death is a must, but I believe personally it is a passageway to the abode of eternal living where we lose many concepts we know on Earth. You are waxing philosophical like Gibran my friend. Keep up the good work.

[Carlos Lorenzo Estrada]

Thank you kindly my friend for your encouraging words. As I near my golden years I feel a sense of rush to accomplish something worthy of any significance. If for just one person then I will have felt vindicated in life. If anyone should read one sentence I wrote and smile, laugh, think, or care than I will be the legacy I yearn for in these words. Our art always carries a piece of us. I don't have any children of my own so I consider my writing my kids. They will speak of my heart when I am no longer here to tell stories and poems. That to me is enough. Thank you so much again. As an admirer of your art it means a lot to hear your kind thoughtful words.

[Sami Khalil]

Wow! All wonderful and worthy. I share lots of things with you. I appreciate you and appreciate your art. Rest assured your good works and deeds will not be in vain even after years. You are a precious human and artist. Take care.

[Cyprian Van Dyke]

You taught me a word - finite: having limits or bounds. Thank you for that. :)

Your poem is filled with wisdom, truth and just good old meaning that goes beyond the finite definition of words (see what I did there?). The last line is both chilling and true. I enjoyed reading this poem. Tyfs

[Carlos Lorenzo Estrada]

Thank you kindly Cyprian for your kind comment on this piece. I'm currently recovering from covid after a month and a half. I had my shots so it wasn't as severe as it could have been. But at my age it was difficult none the less to deal with. The last line of the poem was actually the first sentence I wrote. I had a bad fever and migraine and woke up at 3 am with that sentence playing in my mind. I grabbed my tablet and wrote it down before falling asleep again. Days later I read what I wrote and it troubled me immensely on so many levels. After composing my thoughts I began to remember a few wakes and burials I had attended in my life. Many of the lines are drawn from those memories, as well as a couple of other events. The death of my father whose hand I held as he passed away. And the death of a new born infant at a local hospital I used to work at. The first two lines spoke to those events. After completing the poem I feel the final line speaks to me and this moment of my life. Thank you again my friend for commenting on this work. I really appreciate it.

[Cyprian Van Dyke]

Sorry to hear all the bad news you just shared. I'm sure going through that and seeing such things was/are very hard for you. I hope you feel better. I re-read the lines and can feel even more about them now. My poems are puzzles too. I compose words more than anything it seems. It shows that it takes something out of the writer to write it all down and to get it right upon reflection. I enjoyed the read, Carlos. Thank you for sharing it.

[Chris Shaw]

We are all on a journey and what struck me most about these lines with their wisdom is, we have no idea how long we have got here or how we will die. My heart reflects on the tragedy of Ukraine and the lives of her citizens young and old. The terrible scenes of bodies lying in the streets. People whose lives were cut short and I reflect on their dying moments and perhaps the realisation that their own lives were about to end. I have also.lost my. Mum in the last couple of months, so I see the journey ending in a more dignified way. Yes, we all have that in common, but how we go, how utterly different that can be. Thank you Carlos. Good to read you again. Take good care of yourself while you recover.

Chris

[Carlos Lorenzo Estrada]

Thank you truly from my heart for sharing your thoughts with me. I too have felt such a profound sense of sorrow over the images of war and loss of innocence. Dealing with my current sickness has only compounded the sadness. It took me back to when I held my father's hands when he passed away. And I was also taken back to a memory in a nursery at the local hospital I used to work at where I say the body of a baby boy who died during the night from SIDS. It devastated me seeing the child wrapped in a small blanket with its thumb near its mouth sleeping in a fetal position in its death. It is a memory I will never forget. I had never in my life felt so guilty of being alive and still breathing. Going through covid awoke old ghosts in my mind. Many of the lines were inspired by bits of fragmented memories of the few wakes and burials I had attended in my life. Pieces of sermons or eulogies given during those times. In death we find our most human of emotions which signify our most beautiful traits. Love and empathy. They are the wellspring of wisdom. Thank you Chris for sharing your thoughts with me and I send you sympathies over your loss of your mother. She will always be in the words you write and the art that springs forth from them.

[W. Barrett Munn]

I thought your final stanza was exceptional. We are all dying, just not all at the same pace.

[Carlos Lorenzo Estrada]

I so agree with you on that statement. I held the hand of my old father when he passed away at old age. And I was in nursery at a local hospital I used to work at where a new born baby boy passed away at night from SIDS. There were no words that could ever compare in these two contrasting deaths. It made me only feel a sense of profound guilt. But as time passes I have become more aware that life has limit but not our hope for it. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on this poem. I truly appreciate it.

[John the Baptist]

Excellent work in the tradition of "Desiderata." Ah, but that Putin might read this one!

[Carlos Lorenzo Estrada]

Thank you John for your thoughts on this poem. As I mentioned to William in the previous comments this has been a lifetime of experience to write. Most of it remembered from eulogies from the past or wakes I attended. Where many a people reflected upon a life lived with profound wisdom. Plus having am existential crises after recovering from a months long bout of covid. I'm fortunate to have had my shots because had I not I don't think I would be here right now. It's been a month and a couple of weeks and I'm still recovering from it. This poem was spawned from that experience. Thank you so much again for sharing your thoughts on this piece. I really appreciate it.

[JE Falcon]

After reading this inspired poem I must quote the writer, " For every writer who dreams for a better world, and every reader who imagines it. " --- Amen!

[Carlos Lorenzo Estrada]

Thank you JE for the nice comment on this poem. I have to admit my friend this is the first time in all my 57 years of life I have had my words said back at me and I actually agree with myself for once. Thank you so much again.

[JE Falcon]

Hey, when you're right, you're right.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

We hope when we die that we have even the ledger as much as possible...
life is ephemeral, make the most of it while it is here.
I wish for that wisdom as I grow older, but the older I get, the less I feel I know.
good piece, Carlos,
j.

[Carlos Lorenzo Estrada]

Thank you J for this nice review. Though I will quibble a bit because I feel with the vast incredibly prolific and insightful poetry you have written you are a lot more wiser than you give yourself credit for. Only a philosophical heart and mind like your own can produce the abundance of art as you have. I have no doubt many of the students you have taught would say the same as well. Make no mistake my friend a lot of the young poets here at the Cafe are learning much about the art form because of you. Life has picked my pockets clean so if anyone is holding a ledger all I got for them is what any other writer has...words. Thank you so much again my friend for your thoughts, as always I really appreciate it.

[William Michael Reeves]

Short in form, but long on wisdom. Lengthly in insight and infinite in artistic expression! Although, I think we as a race are not quite dead. Your eulogy may be premature. We do all see the same sunsets. Just different times and angles. Facets of perception. Let's hope the madmen of our world can see through their madness and color their hearts in sunrises! Reading your poem would be a good start. Excellent poem Carlos!

I better check. I hope I haven't missed more new poems from you. Nice to read you again!

Bill

[Carlos Lorenzo Estrada]

Thank you kindly Bill for your comment on this piece. I'm currently on a sabbatical from writing anything at the moment, except for this last piece, which I felt considering the state of the world as well as my health needed to be posted. I'm recovering from covid, though thanks to the shots I took it hit me less severe. Though even at its least it did a number on me for over a month now. I feel this poem would have been served better had I put into context what inspired the work. Death to me has always been the most human of moments one can ever experience in life on an emotional level. I have held the hands of two loved ones as they passed away. I have been to about 6 funerals in my life. And I had been in a room at a hospital where a baby not even a day old lay in death. What I remember most are the eyes in death. Whether closed or opened they resonated with a frozen moment of life. They spoke to me in their image. The first two lines of this poem is my honest reflection of those times. The rest represents pieces of sermons from eulogies and speeches at wakes that I half remember. The final line was actually the first thing I wrote while recovering from a fever during my sickness. Being bedridden left me contemplating what have I really left behind for Humanity's sake? I have accomplished no great deeds, nor profoundly changed or made a difference in anyone's life. I had seen my old father take his last breath, and in another moment seen a perfect beautiful baby boy dead in a nursery at a hospital. I was left with an emotional angst of guilt during those times. I made it through covid, yet over 900 thousand did not. Death teaches us in the most wisest of ways about just how fleeting life is. It is my hope that the reader will draw their own conclusions on the way this work speaks to them. My only desire is that if only one line holds any kind of significance to them than it was worth the life time of suffering it took to write this piece. It is odd to know that out in the world tonight's sunset was someone's last. And now I find myself humming the Beatles "Here comes the Sun". Thank you again Bill for taking the time to read and leave your thoughts on this poem. I truly appreciate it.

[William Michael Reeves]

No surprise our experience mirrors each other. I had the virus just before we started hearing about it. Couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. Started putting 2 and 2 together as the reports of weird symptoms came in. Glad you have the benefit of the vaccine and obviously, you survive! And you know what that means...the ink of your pen will flow again! Sharing your inspiration and experience means so much to me. I was wondering where you've been. If I could write you a prescription I will. Hmmmm....there's an idea. "I say, it's alright!"