Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I am not there.
I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hushI am the swift uplifting
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there.
I did not die.
This is a version of a poem that, apparently was circulated as postcards printed by the Schwarzkopf family. Margaret Schwarzkopf was visiting Mary Elizabeth Frye who was living in Baltimore
SA when Margaret's mother died. It is said that Mary wrote this for Margaret and that it was Mary's first real attempt at poetry.
Mary has said she wrote it on a brown paper bag and that the words just came to her.
Later it was printed on postcards by the Schwarzkopf family and was circulated in that fashion before it was ever conventionally printed. Subsequent versions of the poems have appeared in so many places that it was firmly regarded as public domain, despite Mary Frye's claims.
However the mystery of the true origins of "Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep" seems now to have been solved when the poem was categorically attributed to Mary Frye in 1998, following research by Abigail Van Buren, aka Jeanne Phillips. On her death in 2004,
The Times (English Newspaper) quoted a version of this poem in her autobiography.
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