This poem needs no description. It is a sort of Humanist prayer that will be sent to Humanists UK and othere Humanist organisations in the hope that some celebrant somewhere might use it before I myself might need it!
Thanks to Life (A Humanist Prayer)
When we wend our way through wind-waved wheat
To where any road may footpath meet
Where long-lost lives have set their feet
Give thanks to life for man’s history
And where forests shade us tree by tree
Carpets of flowers all creatures see
And hear birdsong in collective glee
Giving thanks to life for its mystery
And as we walk beyond that wood
To dwellings where tall trees once stood
Constructed for the common good
Give thanks to the life we’re sharing
For none of this world belongs to man
We use what exists as best we can
And pretend to progress according to plan
Giving thanks to life that’s caring
By what means do we possess anything?
The dead with them can nothing bring
Even they who would be queen or king
Give thanks to life though they perish
When they leave this world, they only leave behind
The thoughts they’ve shared with another mind
Which the dead unto the living bind
Giving thanks to a life they cherish
Let’s live our lives to their fullest extent
That they may never be uselessly spent
Amassing things which are only lent
Give thanks for life to the giving
The beings that we live among
In which all are harmed when one does wrong
Are the community to which we can all belong
By giving thanks for life to the living