An empty chair, a silent space
Where joy once used to ring.
A being not there, a deep, dark void
Where laughter used to sing

Is it gone? Gone for good?
Never to return?
In a sense, why, yes it is,
But also not, you'll learn.

A heart has stopped, or has it really?
Yes, there's no more beating;
But in what that heart has done,
It's echo goes on bleating.

The memory of one you love
Can be held in joy gone by.
Then live their love and show the others;
For then, they did not die.

In happiness, when you share their love,
You make their life worth while.
Their heart beats on inside your heart,
Giving all a smile!

And thus, when one is gone you love,
You can live happy on
Just by giving as they would,
You make their love beat on!

http://www.davideyoung.com/Poems/THBO.html
Copyright 2001 by David E. Young. All rights reserved.