David Mitchell - Death and Life

If what follows this life
Is a heaven without suffering,
Where the recollection of past suffering
Does not induce present suffering;
Where there is nothing of evil;
Where we are reconciled, at last,
One to another and to our Creator,
And where all is good and perfect;
Surely such a life
(If it may be so called)
Is better than this.

If what follows this life
Is an oblivion without mind,
Where there is neither suffering
Nor recollection of past suffering
To induce present suffering;
Where all that we ever knew
Is forgotten,
Surely such a death
(If it may be so called)
Is better than this.

If what follows this life
Is another, like life,
Wherein we shall suffer
As in the present present;
Where there is as much or more of evil
Than in this life;
Then hope says
That surely such a life
(Be it true or untrue)
Is better than this.

But whatever follows this life,
We must not neglect it.

(Sunday,15th January,2006.)

David Mitchell

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/death-and-life/