Remember.  Singing Goes on at Funerals.

At day-break the song

Of the skylark is ringing

In the midst of rain.

~ Issa [Englished by Phillip Whidden

The skylark chooses song despite the rain.

The lark is dreaming of the sky when night

And rain surround him.  He refuses stain

On hope and beauty, sings before his flight

And carries singing forward, upward, day

And joy its royal realms.  The rain drops fall

Away from pinions as these feathers say,

“We’re weather-proofed so melodies still call

Out loveliness to bless the earth around

My psalming voice.  I do not need to fly

Before I carol.  While still low on ground,

I praise the universe, both land and sky.

  Who cares about slight trials, April showers?

    I still insist on song’s defiant powers.”