'Holding and Letting Go' (poem) written by Malcolm Guite

This work is from his anthology 'The Singing Bowl' (Canterbury Press, 2013)

We have a call to live, and oh

A common call to die.

I watched you and my father go

To bid a friend goodbye.

I watched you hold my father's hand,

How can it not be so?

The gentleness of holding on

Helps in the letting go.

For when we feel our frailty

How can we not respond?

And reach to hold another's hand

And feel the common bond?

For then we touch the heights above

And every depth below.

We touch the very quick of love;

Holding and letting go.