Beyond The Shore

Composed on the occasion of the tragic deaths of John F. Kennedy Jr. and his companions

July 20, 1999

Sorrow now fills my heart For all our loved ones down below; What I feel, would for them impart, This peace I know, From God above, With burden of my heart.
When friends have gone before, And where or how we cannot tell; We only know they’ve passed the door, The tolling bell, And death’s cold floor, From view beyond the shore.
When fearful oceans blow With powerful force upon this shore; Jesus our Lord only will know What waves before, With sighing sounds, The craft they overflow.
May we be found in Him, The Hope and Anchor of our soul; Though light upon the shore grows dim, And breakers roll, With sighing sounds, Upon this oceans’ brim.
Friends have gone on before, And to what coast we may not tell; But only hear the muffled oar, The ocean’s swell, The sighing sounds, Of those we see no more.
But sweet Hope still is found, In Jesus, we can sometimes tell; He can relieve the dying sounds, He is the well, In Him is found, Their Life, though they have drowned.
Only gone on before, Though to what shore we now can’t tell; But hear no more the muffled oar, Feel the sea’s swell, Hear sighing sounds, Upon that distant Shore.
They have flown on before, Where fear of seas have none befell; Nor sight of breakers near the shore, The ocean’s swells, And sighing sounds, They hear in Time no more.
For Christ has gone on before, And where and how to them now tells; For He came to this rocky shore To bear sin’s swells, With dying sounds, And Sin is there no more.
Could they’ve been there before? Though where or how they may not tell; Still know the glow beyond the door, The anthem’s knell, But sighing sounds, Are flown from that sweet Shore.

*Copyright © 1999
O. Allen Bailey



I am indebted to Dante Gabriel Rossetti? For some inspiration and metering of this poem.



OAB
*This material may be freely distributed, as long as it is not done so for monetary profit.