Did you know that in the Netherlands, if you die without any next of kin, friends, or family to attend your funeral, a poet will be assigned to read a custom poem for you at your funeral so that you won’t be alone that day…at least in the physical realm?
It is a tradition started by poet and artist F Staril and is named “The Lonely Funeral”.
Here is the complete poem in case you insist on embarking on that journey with no one by your side!
“Goodbye stranger, I say goodbye, on the road
to nowhere, to the final country where everyone is welcomed in,
where nothing needn’t know your origin. Farewell sir,
without papers, without identity. What were you looking for?
How much did you lose along the way?
Who stares through the empty window, waits – nameless man, wait, while I speak
and entrust my empty words to this empty room.
I am too late. You I never knew.
Not at your weakest, not in your strength.
Not in the final country, where you are greeted without name.
I don’t know the words you spoke. Not me.
Who then, loved you? In which rooms did you sleep,
who kissed you goodnight, who’ll wear out your shirt?
Who will want to stand where you once stood?
Who now takes the road you took?
Who still looks for you? Who remembers whence you came?
Who heard the voice calling out for you to come on home man to your final haven, Amsterdam”.