Death is Nothing at all

I have only slipped away into the next room
I am I and you are you,
whatever we were to each other that we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name;
speak to me in the easy way, which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone;
wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, and pray for me.

Let my name be forever the same as it always was,
let it be spoken without an effort,
without the ghost of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it always was;
there is absolutely unbroken continuity.

I am but waiting for you,
for an interval, somewhere very near,
just around the corner. ··· All is well.