Thursday, July 26, 2012

902. That I Not Be A Restless Ghost - Margaret Mead

(to her daughter)

That I not be a restless ghost
Who haunts your footsteps as they pass
Beyond the point where you have left
Me standing in the new spring grass,

You must be free to take a path
Whose end I feel no need to know,
No irking fever to be sure
You went where I would have you go. . . .

So you can go without regret
Away from this familiar land
Leaving your kiss upon my hair
And all the future in your hands.

From a reader.  "There is a stanza missing to this poem. I found this poem as a clipping among my mother's papers but there was nothing to say who the author might be nor was there a title, except "for the children."
The reader did not indicate where the stanza goes. Any help?

Those who would fence the future in
Between two walls of well-laid stones
But lay a ghost walk for themselves,
A dreary walk for dusty bones.

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