On the day of death meets life,
There is cold on this side,
And it pushes the living me away, a-sway.
That is where it opens and closes.

I banish a resentment
And my body shivers, pins-and-needles,
A swarm of wasps flying away.
This is how curses leave.
They return to their hive.

A whirlwind spins
Butterflies of wind;
Glittering gold dust;
Drops of shimmering dew;
A flickering mirage;
Into a ringing bell that resonates
With the Earth as its clapper.
May there be Peace to all the World.

A tendril reaches up
And coils another spooled root
Onto the Tree of Life.
It stays where it is born.
It is the germination of a miracle.

And always there are phantom currents
Lifting me up,
Dragging me down,
As I learn to swim them.

Remember you are stardust
That has forgotten how to burn –
Remember how you fled the heart
Of a freckle on a galaxy’s arm?

Remember how you landed
On a drowned iron stone,
And remember how you floated
On the condensed ocean’s foam?

And then, remember,
The pain of lightning’s spark?
It quickened perpetual animation,
And evolved a beating heart.

You consumed yourself a thousands time over,
And grew from cell to beast to being.
You grew from instinctive to informed:
A mortal ego with finite, earthbound dreams.

You forgot how you used to fly
Beyond this terrestrial sphere,
Dragging skillful limbs and clever thoughts
Through a certain span of years.

You think you are humble soil
Waiting to fill awaiting grave,
But remember you are stardust
That will remember how to blaze.

Three things to cast aside: regret for the past, hopelessness for the present, and fear for the future.