Do you or someone you know feel as if you’re getting too close to heaven? Do you feel that life is unbearable on this crazy blue planet and that you don’t know how much longer you can live here? I have felt that way too, I assure you.
Acutely aware that an innumerable amount of people has lost someone they love during this pandemic, from either the virus, because they couldn’t get the medical care they needed, or because they took their own life, I am thinking of you today and wanted to share a poem that I wrote years ago for a friend of mine who took his life. The poem was inspired by the song “Too Close to Heaven” by The Waterboys which you can hear in the stunningly beautiful and powerful video below, posted by deep46blue on YouTube.
If you know of someone who is struggling with their mental health right now, please reach out to The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) for advice on how you can help them. Their toll-free number is 1-800-463-2338.
TOO CLOSE TO HEAVEN
by Christine Bode
You are the brother I never had
Seeing your pain made me so sad
Grateful for every moment we spent
Knowing everything that I said I meant
All the love
All the laughter
Every joy
Every game
You’re too close to heaven to worry about shame
I miss you more than you’ll ever know
Every road travelled has led us here
If I had my way I would go before
I’ll try my best not to need you near
All the raging
All the mud
Every river
Every flood
You’re too close to heaven to worry about blood
Will you ask God when you see him
If he will help me bear your loss
Tell him I am pissed off that
he didn’t pick some other sod
All the stress
All the fright
Every vow
Every tear
You’re too close to heaven to worry about fear
I’ll ask God when he’s listening
to take care of your soul
I’ll ask him for understanding
in this forbidding vicious world
All the past
All the future
Every hope
Every strife
You’re too close to heaven to worry about life
