The Courage to Be

Scripture

“You have made my days a few handbreadths,

and my lifetime is as nothing in your sight.

Surely everyone stands as a mere breath.

Surely everyone goes about like a shadow.”

Psalm 39:5-6 

On a Dream of Being

Who’s to say

yourself is not a dream you had once,

surrounded by particulars—

floors and books and lamps,

phones, door knobs and hinges,

bathtubs and taps,

sinks where the water twirls out

in a spiral until it is gone.

Who’s to say but yourself?

If you are a dream you had once—

a why, and a wherefore, and a when—

all whispered by winds

whirling and wandering willingly then…

…we flow as rivers flow,

shaped by particulars

of surroundings, mundane

and mysterious.

Our self, a wisp of mist

woven from memories fading,

sensations dissolving,

experiences bending,

breaths—

slipping—

ripples—

gone.

Kate Newman

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Artwork - Micheale Compeau, Relations 3