Jim Lewis (1932 - 2003)

 

Journeyman's end

 

Life is but a journey from birth through adolescence

To adulthood and middle-age and uphill unto death

Then to meet with the maker to account for misbehaviour

To weigh the soul's activity: the balance of its worth

 

Giving reason for redemption, for the good that lingers after

For the passport to the afterlife when the promise is fulfilled

Some say I'll lumber into limbo viewing darkness for eternity

Unending nothingness awaiting when life at last is stilled

 

Me... I put my faith in the covenant and the hope that it offers

Where my life is just a stepping stone to the glory road ahead

In communion with the infinite through the bread and wine of suffering

Where others have gone before me now I hope that I'll be led!

 

© Stefan Lewis-Fish

Wednesday, 10 December 2003

 

Written for my father-in-law, Jim Lewis, as he was resting in Cynthia Spencer Hospice, Northampton.

Jim died a couple of days after this poem was written with his family around him.

He was completely at peace and I believe he knew where he was going.