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 softly falling snow.
 I am the gentle showers of rain,
 I am the fields of ripening grain.
 I am in the morning hush,
 I am in the graceful rush
 Of beautiful birds in circling flight.
 I am the starshine of the night.
 I am in the flowers that bloom,
 I am in a quiet room.
 I am in the birds that sing,
 I am in each lovely thing.
 Do not stand at my grave and cry,
 I am not there -- I do not die.

(1932)

Last night, having watered the plants, my Swiss flatmate and I were standing in our terrace garden looking at the stars, with Zurich shimmering on one side and a mountain on the other. He amazed me completely by reciting this poem. The poem was written on a tombstone in the cemetry he used to pass everyday on his way to primary school. He (and apparently quite a few other kids from his school) unconsciously memorised the poem. Some poems you memorise somehow become yours, so here’s me submitting his poem to your brilliant theme!

— Vijay

Notes

Representative Poetry Online notes that there are two distinct versions of the poem floating around, and explains:

Version 1 may be what the Federal Printing Press produced as a postcard for Margaret Scharzkopf’s parents’ friends. It differs from Version 2, claimed by Frye in 2000 as her original, to judge by what she read from that for Kelly Ryan on the Ideas interview, lines 11-14 and the present tense “do” in line 16.

You can see both versions up at
http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem2670.html