Death Cafe**

The Death Cafe**

(no strangers)

Strangers greet the menu

Of hearts longing, wonder

To order from the inside

What’s coming up hot or cold

right now, in love’s reside—

In the delicious uncertainty

In the bittersweetness of endings

In the ingredients of being alive

Around the table, soft gazes

Strangers greet the eyes

Sharing Death’s belonging

In the arc of each of our lives

To hold a moment here

To slow the hurried, worry

What’s stirred in companioning

What’s simmering quietly now

Below the surface of bright or slurry

In the impermanence of life,

Our souls hope for the way—

Loving connections, to flourish

Strangers meet the heart

Of another’s grief & joy, sharing

space of mysterious nourish

We offer up in service, kindness

Around a table of humility

All who have come, curious beings

In the sharing of our sacred stories—

Gifting inspiration with vulnerability

We deepen our collective meaning

May the Death Cafe’s infinite menu

Trust, joy, fear, gratitude,

Anguish, wonder, compassion…

Bear witness to our senses of finality

Offering peace, relief from separation

May strangers meet at the Well

Of conversations on death& dying

In shared precious temporality

Befriending Death at the cafe—

No strangers here at Life’s table

Fulfilling our breadth of humanity

*Death Cafe, a social experiment started in London as a public offering to create a safe space to talk about death & dying, I have experienced both as participant and facilitator, deep meaning in this death “cafe”space

Deathcafe.com