Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep

Clare Harner

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 hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quite 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


NOTE: For many year this poem had been used at funerals, attributed to an anonymous poet. It became widely popularised in 1977, when John Wayne read it at the funeral of Howard Hawks. Many attempts were made to track down the author culminating in an Indianapolis News interview with Mary Elizabeth Frye who claimed to have written it. She continued to do so until her death in 2004. However subsequent research unearthed the original publication of the poem in the December 1934 issue of poetry magazine, The Gypsy, attributed more plausibly to Clare Harner who died the year the poem was read at Hawk's funeral.