They Only Hiked to Heaven by Francisco O. Javines

(as published in the Manila Times and in the Philippine Journal of Education, August 1963)

Grieve not, my friends. The boys will be home:
They only hiked to heaven. And now they laugh
at the foolish tears we shed.
They are not dead - boys never die; they live
in you and me: in every little burden
from a neighbor's shoulders lifted;
in every smile we cause to glow
upon a face where sorrow drifted;
They live in every man or woman, boy or girl
whose life is filled with days of simple deeds:
perhaps a fence that's mended,
a frail old woman helped across a street;
or just a good book read, or a humble prayer said.
Weep not, O mothers. Grieve not, O fathers.
Your boys will still be boys in God's eternal bosom.
Their shouts, their pranks, their laughter and their tears
now echo in the vaster corridors of heaven.
Their names unsullied and their noble deeds
now are enshrined in the hears of men of men
of every clime and creed!
Grieve not, beloved land bereft of boyish blooms
suddenly plucked by the swift hand
of the Giver of life. He caught them like arrows
arrested in flight, gleaming in the sunlight,
to swerve to His higher purpose, His nobler aim.
And as April suns that sink in Manila Bay in one great blaze
return and ever return in every sunny day,
So too will they return in every son of this dear land:
in every good deed done, in every tear we turn to laughter.
Grieve not, my friends. Death is not death for him
whose daily humble deed shone bright and yet unseen
by eyes myopic with material greed.
Death is not death for those whose lives forever shine
as well-trod woodland paths
that beckon in the moonlight,
and beg the restless mind and heart, the exploring feet
to seek the distant nooks and glens, and there
to hold communion with the Maker, and to learn
the lore of fowl and flower, the prayer and the patience
of the trees; and then at last, when work is done,
to seek the silence of the tents of heaven.
They are not dead. They only wander now
amidst the tents of seraphim
in the eternal jamboree grounds
lit by the campfire of the stars.