Farming Death ... help please...?

Question:My Grampa (a farmer) died this weekend and I want to find a farming or country related poem or verse to read at the funeral any one know anything that would fit the bill please help, this is really hard for me, thank you

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: My Grampa (a farmer) died this weekend and I want to find a farming or country related poem or verse to read at the funeral any one know anything that would fit the bill please help, this is really hard for me, thank you

This is one I wrote about my father. If it helps, feel free to use it.

The Farmer

With furrowed brow and farmer's tan
he struggled for a dream.
What he wanted no man knew,
what he needed they all felt too.
Through changing seasons
and weather woes...
he labored long and watched the cycles.
From seedlings small to golden grain
his world spoke in metronome.
But just as greens do fade
to golden hues so his age
started chiming a slower chord.
And though the gait does slow
and rocker calls...
the need never does.
The need to be a part yet create
to bring life to fertile loams.
To reap subtle gifts that God has given.
To be a man that earned his keep.
Amen

I love this one.

Love of the Land
May 10, 2007 10:55 AM

By Terri Lemmon | Amelia, Nebraska

It’s a hard feeling to describe,
this emotion that swells inside.
Each time I fondly gaze,
on the land where I was raised.

I see memories of happy times,
and hear the laughter so clear.
I smile as I remember –
and can almost touch the images so near.

I also get a little sad,
when thinking about those that are gone.
I feel so close to them here
on the land we all lived on.

The thing is you can’t describe it
to those that put money before all.
It’s not the monetary rewards that make you
feel the pride, the love, the call.

But for those who do understand,
these lines are meant for you
We have been blessed with a good life
and a satisfied feeling known to so few.

So when you say your prayers,
and thank the Good Lord above,
Remember to add how thankful you are
to be safe and free on the land that you love.

(Note: its not my poem)

peacefromken.

If you google "memorial poems," you'll find several sites with poems especially for funerals. I like this short meditation by St. Augustine:

Love never disappears for death is a non-event.

I have merely retired to the room next door.

You and I are the same; what we were for each other, we still are.

Speak to me as you always have, do not use a different tone, do not be sad.

Continue to laugh at what made us laugh.

Smile and think of me.

Life means what it has always meant.

The link is not severed.

Why should I be out of your soul if I am out of your sight?

I will wait for you, I am not here, but just on the other side of this path.

You see, all is well.

--St. Augustine

However, let me also suggest that you simply speak from your heart, perhaps telling some of the things you liked about your grandpa, things you'll always remember about him, etc. To me, your words and feelings, simple or un-eloquent though they might be, are a better tribute than repeating someone else's words.

But either way, it's great that you want to speak about him.

"Follower" by Seamus Heaney is a good one, it's about his Father though. "Elegy" by Sidney Keyes was written for his Grandfather.

Brook Farm
by Louise Guiney

DOWN the long road, bent and brown,
Youth, that dearly loves a vision,
Ventures to the gate Elysian,
As a pilgrim from the town.

Coming not so late, so far,
Rocks and birches! for your story;
Not to prate on vanished glory
Where of old was quenched a star;

Where of old, in lapse of toil,
Time but mocked a prayer pathetic;
Where the flower of good prophetic
Starved in our New England soil.

Ah! to Youth with radiant eyes,
For whom grief is not, nor daunting,
Lost glad voices still are chanting
‘Neath those unremaining skies,

Still the dreams of fellowship
Beat their wings of aspiration;
And a smile of soft elation
Trembles from its haughty lip

If another dare deride
Hopes heroic snapped and parted,
Disillusion so high-hearted
All success is mean beside.