Today is the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks that brought down the World Trade Centre. At 11am, a memorial will be held. And as we all say "never forget", as we all mourn the loss of all those lost to us between then and now, between the initial attacks, and the resultant wars, I will be mourning in a different way. As I have also, this past Friday, lost someone close to me.

She was my best friend's mother, and was one of the strongest people I know. In the end, her cancer won out, but she gave it the fight of her life.

As such, I wrote a farewell poem for her.

An Atheist’s Goodbye

What are we?

Why are we here?

What is life?

What is time?

What awaits us at the end of life's great ladder, once we've climbed.

Is there more to all this than would seem?

Could it be, that as the song says, life is but a dream?

Are we all characters in some great cosmic show?

If the latter be true, what then happens when the curtain's brought low?

Is there more to our existence than meets the eye?

Do we go to that great gig in the sky? Where Sinatra sips martinis with St. Peter and Syd Barrett.

No, I've a much different view, and would quite like to share it.

Of “starstuff” we are made, Carl Sagan has said.

To my way of thinking, he's hit it right on the head.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. That saying, that one phrase, I trust.

For the Universe is vast, immeasurably so.

And when our time is done here, back to it we must go.

Now, as I sit here and write this, I have found time to reminisce.

My first thought, is how much you'll be missed.

However all is not lost, no need to be dour.

All I need do, is find a meteor shower.

For to the cosmos you did return,

To vast swirling eddies of galaxies as they churn.

As in thermodynamics, matter can't be created or destroyed.

You're then still with us, and also part of the great void.

Your essence is here, in the trees, in the oceans

And in that, I find, a quite comforting notion.

Goodbye Jeanette...we will all miss you.